“It was you— you— you!”
“What did you… do to me?!”
Sprawled on the ground, Mordiana panted, her gaze locked on Linen with naked venom.
She was an aberrant Space-Attribute, Peak of Eight-Ring Arcana Mage—the world’s foremost master of Shadow Arcana. Even after using a forbidden art to downgrade herself, there was no way she should have misfired her teleportation three times in a row.
There was only one answer.
Linen had tampered with her.
That sword of his… had been wrong.
Mordiana suddenly seemed to wake from a dream. A pale light enveloped her body—a self-diagnostic Arcana. Something that would normally take her a single breath to accomplish now required a spell to complete. That was the backlash of having strength and bodily rank out of sync.
When the result surfaced, she froze for a split second.
Then she shot Linen a glare that seemed intent on devouring him whole.
But beneath the fury, confusion and shock flickered in her eyes.
“How is this possible? I clearly…”
Inside her body, scattered like dusk-lit stars, were flecks of silver light—the Moon Goddess’s divine power Linen had driven into her with that backstab.
Mordiana was arrogant, not foolish. With her wealth of combat experience, she understood perfectly how terrifying it was to have the nature of one’s mana altered mid-battle.
So the instant Linen’s Moon Goddess power entered her, she had forced what little mana she retained into a violent churn, shredding the silver divine power apart.
What she hadn’t expected was that the shattered fragments didn’t vanish.
They dissolved into stardust.
Fine, glittering motes that lay in ambush beneath her skin, within her veins, coiled through her organs—settling into every path where mana flowed.
Which meant the three teleportation spells she’d cast afterward had all been subtly influenced by those silver motes.
That was the truth behind her three failed jumps.
The initial flood—liquid, invasive, like molten consecrated mithril—had been deliberate misdirection.
The real poison had begun after it shattered.
Moonlight into stardust.
Those glimmering motes were the true menace.
Despicable.
That bastard prince—and the bastard god who blessed him—both!
“So you’ve figured it out,” Linen said calmly. “If I were you, I wouldn’t waste any more mana trying to purge it.”
“The silver moon waxes and wanes. The Moon Goddess is the most mercurial of the three. Her moon-liquid and star-motes are divine poison. Not something your current state can casually remove.”
For once, Mordiana didn’t immediately retort.
She lowered her head. Strands of hair fell, veiling her face.
A moment later, a low, hoarse laugh bubbled from her throat.
As though something inside her had snapped into place.
Her aura began to climb. The mana presence she’d been desperately suppressing now spilled outward without restraint.
Though it didn’t surpass the Sixth-Ring threshold, in this instant Mordiana seemed to have shed all prior disarray. A shadow of the lofty, disdainful Shadow Queen returned to her bearing.
“Very well, Linen Norton. As you wish.”
“You’ve truly enraged me.”
She spread her hands. Her skirt rippled as ink-black shadows poured out, flooding the ground around her. From the darkness, twisted arms clawed upward—warped subjects of the Shadow Realm answering their queen’s summons.
Her smile stretched, feral.
Her eyes, filled with roiling black, fixed on Linen with suffocating malice.
“Prince of Zijinghua… I’ll make your screams the nightmare your little confidantes can never forget~”
Lily’s expression hardened as she shifted into a combat stance.
As the First Emperor of Zijinghua with battle experience carved into her bones, she understood what this meant.
The Shadow Queen had abandoned escape.
She was prepared to risk alerting everyone in the castle—even risk her location being reported to Empress Tivira and Reinhardt—just to fulfill her vow here and now.
To grant Linen the most horrifying death she could devise.
The long night was finally nearing dawn.
But the darkest hour before it… would fall on the young man she was bound to.
“Linen…”
Lily began softly, about to offer words of encouragement—
And was cut off by laughter.
“Heh… hehehe… HAHAHAHAHA!”
Linen covered his face with one hand, head thrown back, shoulders shaking as he laughed.
Lily: …
For a moment, she genuinely couldn’t tell which of them was the villain.
“Then I suppose,” Linen said at last, “that will be your last words.”
Mordiana didn’t respond.
With a flick of her hand, a wolf-shaped Mana Spirit burst from the shadows and lunged at Linen’s throat.
Lily stepped forward in a single stride, blade flashing upward. The wolf was cleaved cleanly in two, its severed halves twitching as they hit the ground.
“A Fourth-Ring Mana Spirit right out of the gate…”
Enough. You’ve achieved your goal—stop provoking her further! Lily warned sharply through their shared imprint.
Achieved? Linen replied at once, unnervingly calm. Not even close.
You do realize, don’t you? The three Fathers have gone a long time without receiving faith power. They expended themselves casting divine blessings for me. Right now they’re Cardinals in name only—empty shells.
We absolutely cannot let Mordiana realize that. If she does, Novie and the others are in real danger.
Then we just need to hold out until your mother drops the barrier, Lily said hesitantly. Once she and that Reinhardt arrive, everything will turn around.
“Yes,” Linen murmured. “That would be ideal.”
Unfortunately… they won’t come.
He sighed softly.
Lily. Have you forgotten? Trapped inside that city-class barrier with my mother and Reinhardt… what else is in there?
Lily froze.
Then, in the next instant, a chill raced through her.
She’d nearly forgotten.
The reason Empress Tivira hadn’t lifted the barrier—still believing Mordiana to be within—was because Mordiana had left most of her power sealed inside it.
And once the barrier fell, along with the two imprisoned Eight-Ring Grand Knights—ninety percent of Mordiana’s sealed mana would be released as well.
When the barrier dissolved, Mordiana wouldn’t instantly return to her peak. She might even be seized and executed by Tivira and Reinhardt upon their arrival.
But she wouldn’t need her peak.
An Eight-Ring, even regaining thirty or forty percent would put her beyond Linen’s capacity to resist.
Lily might have overlooked that.
The one who cast the forbidden art certainly had not.
Which meant Mordiana wasn’t gambling on killing Linen before reinforcements arrived.
From the start, she’d intended to drag him down with her.
This woman had been driven completely insane by Linen’s inhuman maneuvering.
One of the Tower of Chronomancy’s Twelve Ring-bearers. An Archmage.
And she was willing to die alongside a seemingly insignificant Third-Ring prince?
For a moment, Lily genuinely couldn’t decide which of them was losing more.
She only knew one thing.
Linen was utterly reckless—toward others and toward himself.
If my mother were the only one inside that barrier, I might really end up going down with this lunatic, Linen said lightly. Fortunately, I bet correctly.
Reinhardt stands with Zijinghua. That old lion isn’t as reckless as the rumors claim. He’ll think of this.
So all I need to do now… is kill an Arcana Mage with the combat experience of an Eight-Ring and nearly Sixth-Ring mana capacity.
He exhaled as though relieved.
Lily had no idea what part of this allowed him to relax. He spoke as if the advantage were his.
But she only tightened her grip on the sword.
As an ancestor. As a former king. She had failed in many ways.
But now she was Linen’s heroic spirit.
And as a heroic spirit, following her host into battle to the very end was enough.
Besides…
At least you’re not alone in this castle, Lily said. If those soldiers with the strange heavy weapons and the three Cardinals can make it here, this might still be winnable.
Before she finished speaking, the shadow mire around Mordiana churned.
A pack of Mana Spirit wolves surged out—not toward Linen, but scattering in all directions throughout the castle.
Moments later, the thunder of heavy weapons and the sounds of combat erupted across the grounds.
Reinforcements weren’t coming anytime soon.
Lily: …
Don’t look so down, Lily, Linen chuckled softly. Don’t mistake her for a fool. She’s Mordiana. A Ring-bearer of the Tower of Chronomancy. Even if she’s furious—hell, even if she’s truly insane—her instincts and battle experience will guide her.
But that’s exactly why she’s fallen this far.
She’s too strong. Strong enough that she’s almost never lost. Strong enough that she can’t accept losing.
And that made her predictable.
The shadows around Mordiana suddenly warped.
Countless dark spikes formed from the blackness and shot toward Linen from every direction.
Linen raised the Holy Sword condensed from Moon Goddess power and stepped forward, meeting the incoming shadows head-on.
The foremost spike hurtled toward his forehead.
At the last possible instant, he leapt.
The spike grazed past him at a hair’s breadth.
The previously slow-moving barrage suddenly accelerated, every shadow spike redirecting toward Linen midair.
“Watch out!”
Lily lunged forward to intercept, but Linen moved even faster.
He twisted sharply at the waist, spinning at an impossible angle. All the incoming spikes shattered beneath his blade, and those that remained froze stiff in midair, tainted by the mithril sheen of Moon Goddess power.
As Linen landed, he opened his mouth, releasing a torrent of elemental fury he’d been building up.
[DRAGONFIRE]
The violent dragon breath incinerated every last spike without Lily needing to lift a finger.
Lily wasn’t the only one stunned—Mordiana stared, momentarily shaken.
Those shadow spikes had been crafted directly from the essence of the Shadow Realm itself, ranking among her strongest attacks. Yet Linen had brushed them aside effortlessly.
Rising casually, Linen flashed a slightly sinister grin.
“Don’t look so surprised, Mordiana. I knew exactly who I’d be fighting from the start. But you—you’re clueless about what you’re up against.”
The Linen standing here was a monster unlike anything ever seen before—stacked with Heroic Spirit Blessings, dragonblood protections, and triple divine graces.
With Lily backing him up, the Moon Goddess’s divine power binding their fates, and his already terrifying melee skills further boosted by his dragonblood, he hadn’t been bluffing or grandstanding.
This wasn’t Linen challenging the Shadow Queen.
It was Mordiana who desperately needed a way out, and her only path to escape this castle was through him.
Only Third-Ring?
What a joke. Counting rings to gauge Linen’s strength right now was meaningless.
He was the final boss—the true gatekeeper Mordiana had to face!
“You merely broke one of my attacks,” Mordiana snarled furiously, black shadows exploding once more. “Next, I’ll grind your bones to dust!”
“Funny, I was about to say the same thing.” Linen laughed wildly, dodging spikes as he countered.
Though Mordiana’s attacks were potent, she was fundamentally limited to her “shadows.” At best, they were variations of shadow magic, stripped even of her most vital Spatial Arcana—teleportation.
Every inch of her body had been seeded by Linen’s stardust-like Moon Goddess power. Their fates were woven together; no matter how she tried teleporting, she’d only end up closer to Linen.
And compared to Mordiana’s relentless assault, Linen’s counters were far flashier.
Sword techniques, moonlight bursts, sudden strikes from his Heroic Spirit, even hidden attacks unleashed from his palms and mouth—
None individually were devastating, but collectively they wore her down with sheer unpredictability, turning the battle into something more akin to mockery than a real fight.
Just as Linen had said, he was the genuine guardian here, the one who could afford to take his time.
Mordiana’s expression shifted rapidly from rage to frustration, then back to fury.
And just as Lily thought Linen finally had the upper hand—
Tap!
Linen evaded another spike, his foot touching the ground.
In that instant, Mordiana’s previously agitated expression suddenly relaxed into a cunning, triumphant smile.
“Got you!”
Throughout the fight, Linen had meticulously avoided stepping on even the smallest shadow. But as dawn approached and the sun rose, the shadows shifted, sprawling until they covered most of the ground.
Forced by relentless attacks, Linen—unable to fly—had finally stepped partially into a shadow.
Instantly, Mordiana unleashed the spell she’d withheld this entire battle—her signature Shadow Realm summoning.
A wolf-shaped Mana Spirit burst from the shadow beneath Linen, biting down viciously on his ankle!
More wolf spirits poured out, locking onto his legs and left arm. One even flung itself onto Linen’s blade, forcing him to keep it buried and temporarily sealing his Moon Goddess blade.
“Linen!”
Lily shouted desperately, rushing forward—only to be stopped by a gust of shadowy wind. Forced back, she turned to see her new opponent:
A massive wolf spirit, twice the size of the others, deep violet lightning crackling in its eyes.
A pack leader!
Mordiana had kept this alpha hidden precisely for this moment.
Cackling madly, shadows surged and writhed in Mordiana’s palm, forming an ominous dagger of pure darkness. Yet, despite its shadowy origin, the weapon looked disturbingly solid, intricate runes etched along its blade, crowned with a ruby jewel embedded at its tip.
Grasping the dagger, Mordiana stabbed ruthlessly into Linen’s chest, blood spurting out!
She shrieked in twisted triumph, leaning close to him as if embracing, her tone overflowing with vindictive glee:
“You thought you could kill me? You, a mere insect, kill a Ring-bearer?!”
“Linen Norton, I’ll shred your soul bit by bit with my ‘Shadow-Devourer,’ stripping away every shred of pride you have. Everything you’ve done is meaningless!”
“Your little friends—those three girls—I won’t spare them either! I’ll torture them, one by one, and turn them into my Mana Spirits!”
“You’ve got that all wrong, Mordiana.” Linen’s voice was strained, his face ghostly pale from the agony of his soul beginning to tear apart. Even Lily wavered, unable to hold her physical form from the ripples of Linen’s fading spirit, yet he still smiled calmly:
“You made two mistakes. First—I never intended to kill you myself. I’m just here… helping someone else. The one who wants you dead… was never me.”
Convinced she’d already won, Mordiana leaned against Linen, arm draped intimately around his neck as she drove another slow, twisting stab into him, carving into his flesh with relish.
“Consider this payback for that earlier sword of yours.”
“Someone else? Who? Those three girls?”
“I won’t die. Once your soul is shredded, I’ll leave freely. Your dear mother and that lion will still be stuck behind the barrier, foolishly waiting for good news from their precious son~”
She laughed hysterically, drunk on her own madness:
“Who dares kill me? Who could kill me? Who—”
A silver blade pierced cleanly through Mordiana’s chest from behind. In stunned disbelief, she watched helplessly as the dagger twisted slowly, shredding her organs from within.
Her final thought echoed bitterly:
Not again?!
“I dare!”
Theresia hissed through clenched teeth, emerging from the open portal. The assassin girl’s voice was icy, yet devoid of satisfaction despite finally avenging her vendetta.
Her gaze locked entirely onto Linen, who was bleeding profusely from the two grievous wounds.
Barely breathing, the prince’s face was drained of color, yet he managed a weak, brilliant smile, flashing pearly white teeth:
“And second…”
“…I have four girls, actually.”
—
T/N: OKAY BRO
OKAYYYYYYYYY
alsoi im gonna try to give this hsr treatment, so 1 chapter per update day instead of the 5 per week, because chapters are decently long and yeah, gives more chance for actual updates
This is a fan translation of 拒绝我啊，可恶的女人 by 帝国の咕咕鸽. All rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!
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