The Flower of Separation

'I suppose it was a good thing I was so curious. If I hadn't met this person right now, I would be-' Her thoughts broke off, feeling an ominous presence.

Lillian sighed deeply. They haven't even gotten the Empress to the ballroom yet, and somebody wants her head already? Is it sister Bridget again? No, those people would have stopped a long time ago. It would be bad if they continued attacking her.

Then is it the assassins after Natalia? There are usually a lot every year, but she has seen no signs of them.

"Lillian, there are magicians," Lucas mumbled.

So it is the other option, those foreign magicians who wandered into the capital. Now that she thought about it, the magician's appearance started with rumors about the Empress. There was unusual activity during that time frame.

It seems the target is the Empress. If that is the case, "Lucas, stay with her."

"Oi, but your-"

"A little fever isn't going to kill me." Lillian trailed off as a sly smile appeared on her lips. "Besides, it is high time I have some fun." She raised her hand right as she said that, and a stream of deadly spider lilies surrounded her.

Lucas seemed dissatisfied with her response but quickly took the Empress away. The moment they vanished and she was sure they were no longer in the area, she put her hand down and caused the spider lilies to vanish. Instead, in her palm was a large ball of fire.

'Sorry I have to ruin your party, Natalia.' Lillian extended her hand out, and the room was under a sea of flames in the next second.

It did not take long before she heard the sound of approaching footsteps. Due to the sea of flames, it was challenging to make them out clearly, but she already knew they were the enemy.

She has fought countless battles ever since she became a General, since she took down that dragon. In her father's words, countless opportunities lay before her now. Indeed after she achieved that feat, she was able to ask for anything. 'I chose to become the General. I chose to abandon everything because I understood. These powers will bring down the Empire faster.'

The one who will end this Empire is not her father or Eric or even that new madman Stuart.

'This is a curse; you will be the one to end it all and reset everything.'

This is her fate, to turn the Empire into a sea of blood and flames.

The masked magicians tried all sorts of attacks on her, but she easily deflected them with her blade. These are the so-called powerful magicians from Lucas village? 'How pathetic.' Lucas must have been bored living in that place.

She watched one by one as the magicians fell until there was only one more. Lillian didn't waste time with this one and just killed him with one slash of her blade. When the last person fell onto the ground, she felt a familiar presence.

'Here he comes.'

Lillian turned around and spotted a man with ash-blonde-colored hair.

It was a familiar face, a face she had not seen in such a long time. However, unlike the last time she saw him, there were signs of old age.

This is the person who was her eldest brother's best friend and the one who was supposed to take over the Zestra family, sir Aaron.

"Sir Aaron, we have not met in so long, and this is how you greet me, with a blade pointed at me?"

Even though he was quite a distance away, she could not mistake the furious look on his face. There were specs of blood on his face, and he held a bloody sword towards her.

"Tell me what the reason is?"

"For?"

"All these years, I tried to think why, but I couldn't figure it out. Why did you kill Lucy?"

Lillian exhaled deeply when she heard those words."Need I remind you how she ambushed us with those monsters?"

Right, she omitted one thing when she told the Empress the story from back then. She did not just randomly pass out and wake up later when it all ended. She and sir Aaron were having a hard time fighting the monsters.

It took her some time before she realized somebody was controlling the beasts, and when she found out who it was. 'It didn't surprise me. There was something off about that woman from the purple lion's family.'

Why would somebody from that family send their daughter to work at the Zestra family mansion? She did a bit of digging, and right before the monastery incident, she learned that woman wasn't from that family at all. She was a noble, but from a family, the Zestra family took down.

Before she could reveal that news, that incident occurred. It was clear that the woman realized that she had discovered her identity and was trying to kill her before she mentioned it. However, she probably did not think sir Aaron would be there too.

"I --"

"Besides, it's not like you didn't notice; otherwise, you would not have accepted her advances when you already had a fiance. As young as I was, we were still engaged."

"Killing Lucy aside, why did you kill all those clergymen?"

"They were corrupt too."

Aaron shook his head. "Stop making excuses. Lili, you could have chosen a different path. You know your brother didn't want to kill anyone other than your father."

"And that makes his decision more righteous? He would still have had to shed blood." Lillian trailed off. "Did you truly think that rebellion would have worked by killing only one person? Sir Aaron, you're not that naive."

Although she insulted him for being a fool and a flirt, Lillian understood why her brother teamed up with this person. She understood why her father worked hard on getting them engaged. This man possesses a high IQ, and his talent with magic and the blade surpassed even her brother Raiju's. At the time, he was the strongest person in the Empire.

It was only natural for her father to want Aaron on their side.

"That is true, but Lilli, for me, it was not an engagement of convenience. You could have opened up to me; you already knew how I felt."

How he felt, huh? Of course, she knew. He shamelessly flirted around with her and made it clear that he wasn't serious about Lucy. She had far too many other things on her mind to take him seriously back then. No, she deliberately pushed him away.

'If I accepted him, then it would have been the same as telling myself to die.' She was born as a member of the Ageha family, born into a ruthless family of murderers. If she had accepted Aaron's feelings, then she would have had a visible weakness.

"That was the path I chose, no." Lillian shook her head.. "I would have chosen that path even now."