Heroine Hunts Heroines

Chapter 63

Within a week, hundreds of golems were created. With the Demon King's army gone, the remaining elves, together with the golems, began retaliating against the Empire’s forces. Although the Imperial army was human and had wizards, elves were inherently superior in magic. Even if the Empire's army had more physical strength, it was no match for the elves’ magic attacks from afar, using golems as shields.

As a result, the Empire was utterly ravaged. Uprisings broke out in occupied territories right on cue, and the Empire, defeated by the golems and elves, had to give up everything.

And what happened to the Emperor? To be honest, the Emperor's role didn’t appear in the original event. Likely because the author, Yoo Eun-ha, had made it just a passing moment. But here, in reality, I saw the Emperor with my own eyes.

"Master’s best treasure!"

I looked down at the regal blonde woman diligently licking between my legs. This woman was the Emperor.

Her golden hair was elegantly braided, her long lashes framing a flawless face. She wasn’t just anyone; she was the descendant of the Hero, the very Emperor of the Empire.

So, why had she sided with the Demon King? It was obvious.

"Damn, so you really fell for the Demon King just because he’s handsome?”

Yeah, to put it simply, she’d been smitten by that pretty boy. When the Empire surrendered, she was designated a war criminal and dragged to the Elven Kingdom. At first, she lashed out, accusing me of being garbage who interfered with her love for the Demon King. But after I taught her a bit of submission, she quickly turned over.

Ah, though I had actually expected her to be fully corrupted by that pretty-boy Demon King, it didn’t seem like that was the case. It was as if her love was pure.

To begin with, what could she even do with that puny thing the Demon King had? Anyway, this was the Emperor’s story. She was genuinely a hopeless romantic who had fallen for the Demon King.

“No matter what happens, I belong to the Demon King!”

“You garbage who dared to get in the way of my love with him! Just die already!”

At first, she came at me, trying to kill me. But whether it was because she had a bit of a spanking kink, after a few slaps, she started leaking her juices.

“R-right now, Master’s treasure is the best!”

“To think a woman like you was the Emperor.”

“Not like you’re one to talk, Maman, considering you can’t live without my tail.”

Strangely addicted to my tail, Elene—Maman—was busy licking its tip. She enjoyed it even more than being filled, finding it exceptionally satisfying to lick. She even said it tasted wonderfully sweet.

I left my tail to Elene, rubbing my hips against the Emperor’s face, and asked Maman a question.

“About what?”

“About the traitor. Now that he’s staying still, I’m guessing that traitor plans to stay behind the scenes?”

“Seems like it.”

That bastard Fedor. Now that both the Demon King’s and the Empire’s armies had been crushed, he was lying low. But speak of the devil, and he shall appear.

“You filthy wretch! What are you doing to our queen right now?!”

Fedor had arrived.

What does it look like I’m doing? Letting her suck my tail. Oh, I think my tail’s about to finish. Feels like it’s getting closer to being something like a cock.

“Fedor?”

“Ugh, shut up. Walked right into this himself.”

Fedor was standing there, staring speechless at the sight of me rubbing my groin against the Emperor’s face while Maman sucked on my tail. His expression was like that of a pigeon struck mid-peck.

You bastard. How dare you interrupt my sacred time? Not to mention, this is the queen’s bedroom. I was going to kill him anyway, wasn’t I? Maybe I should just deal with him now.

“Huh?”

“Maman, it’s him. That bastard. He’s the one conspiring with the Demon King.”

“R-really?”

Since he was already here, I decided to spoil the surprise in earnest. Might as well prevent him from even thinking of running.

“What nonsense! I would never do such a thing!”

“The Demon King who’s already dead spilled everything. I know it all — how you leaked the supply routes, the fortress locations, even the size of our forces.”

Of course, that was a lie. The Demon King had been twisted and crushed by me as easily as breaking a chicken's neck. While he had committed treason, I hadn’t actually heard him reveal Fedor as a traitor. It was now up to Fedor’s intelligence to see through it.

“Gah... Damn Demon King! Couldn’t he die alone without taking me down too?!”

In the end, Fedor revealed everything himself. I had just thrown out bait, but he took it, effectively proving he was a traitor.

“Oh, and by the way, all your lackeys? Reyna took care of them.”

“M-my subordinates... all dead?”

“Didn’t realize they were your children, huh? Oof.”

Sending his own daughters into battle? What a piece of trash.

“W-what did you do to my children?”

“Oh, they’re golems now.”

I had implanted cores in them, transforming them into elf-like golems. Not quite above your standard golem, but with slightly better AI. It seemed he wanted to see his daughters, so I summoned them in front of Fedor.

“Y-you... you girls?”

With lifeless eyes, Fedor’s daughters surrounded him. I didn’t know much about their family bonds, but a golem’s core retains traces of memories from its original host. Judging by how quickly they moved to attack him, he probably hadn’t been a great father.

“Master commanded us to castrate traitors.”

“Hold still and take it, Fedor.”

Fedor’s eyes widened in terror.

His own daughters were about to kill him. Some might think it looked excessively cruel, but I am an evil dragon. Besides, Fedor’s daughters had attempted to kill Seo Ji-yeon and Reyna. A little payback is only fair, don’t you think?

“Y-your Majesty! It’s not true! This is a setup!”

“Uncle, your reaction alone confirms you’re the traitor.”

Exactly. My Maman could sense deception in others’ emotions. Up until now, she had trusted him and held no suspicions, but with his disgusting display, she’d find it impossible to ignore. Besides, she’d fallen for me, so she had a good reason to believe what I said.

“No... No! Let go of me, damn it! You’re my daughters!”

Right, she’s the queen.

Where there’s a meeting, there’s also a parting. I planned to handle this coolly. But, of course, I didn’t. I went to a secluded corner of the Archive and, talking to myself like some strange person, spoke to the Akashic Record.

“Akashic Record, can’t you connect this portal to here?”

—It’s not impossible. If someone with the ability to activate the portal opens a gate to the Archive based on new records in the ruins. However...

So, it’s possible to bring her over.

“However?”

—By preventing the fall of the Elven Kingdom, Master has created a new timeline. Connecting the original world to this one would create a discrepancy with the timeline where Rachel is confined in the Archive.

“What sort of discrepancy?”

—Rachel is a Silverluck from 100 years after the fall of the Elven Kingdom. If we connect to her Archive from this altered timeline, a new timeline must be created to match the ‘Archive where Rachel is confined.’ According to the parallel world theory, this means recreating the timeline in which the Elven Kingdom fell in the past, resulting in a 100-year discrepancy. While you could enter the Archive, connecting worlds would take 100 years.

In short, it’ll take 100 years to open a backdoor.

“Why does the timeline need to connect to a world 100 years ahead?”

—Think of it as an equivalent exchange. To bring Rachel’s Archive into her world, it needs to align with the world she was born in.

“So in this altered timeline, the kingdom might persist, and another elf—not Rachel—could be born?”

—Correct.

“The answer’s simple: I’ll have both Maman and Rachel. But if I stay in there for 100 years, what happens to the outside world?”

—Time in the Archive doesn’t pass in the outside world. So, no matter how long you stay in the Archive, time will remain unchanged outside.

“What if I bring Rachel here first?”

—In that case, you’re bringing a figure from the timeline where the Elven Kingdom fell, which would be ‘recognized’ as the original history. It would lock this timeline as the one where Elene’s Elven Kingdom is destined to fall. Additionally, while it wouldn’t take the full 100 years, there’s no way of knowing exactly how long it might take to bring Rachel to the original world from within the Archive.

So, it could still end up taking 99 years or so, even if the Akashic Record doesn’t know for sure. In that case, it’s manageable. In fact, if 100 years guarantees I can bring Rachel here and keep Maman, all the better.

When I set my mind to something, I see it through.

I deactivated the Akashic Record and looked at Maman with a bold, unwavering gaze.

“I can’t give you up, Maman. I’ll connect my world to yours.”

“Yoo... Eun-ha.”

Tears filled Maman’s eyes as she pulled me into an embrace. Honestly, it was annoying that she prioritized her kingdom over me, but I can’t blame her. I, too, can’t bear to see the Elven Kingdom I saved fall into ruin.

“Reyna will miss this place too. Isn’t that right?”

“Yes... but the risk...”

“There’s no risk.”

Reyna tends to be wary of such gestures. If I told her I’d spend 100 years in there just to bring Rachel back, she’d object. But I’m not giving up Rachel, not my double bounty with mother and daughter, and not Rachel herself.

“Well... then...”

“Once the portal opens in the Archive, just make sure the other elves don’t panic.”

“Yes!”

And with that, the three of us stepped through the portal, returning at last to our original world, where the Elven ruins awaited.

“So, we’re back?”

“For now, let’s go. We need to call Kate.”

Time isn’t something we can waste—things need to move quickly.

We brought in Kate, who was happily devouring ice cream at Si-woo’s place, to connect the Archive in the Elven ruins to the gate, linking it with the Elven Kingdom.

Everything was in place. Now, all that’s left...

***

In the Archive, now inactive and serving only to imprison intruders, a woman sat amidst a pile of books, gazing longingly at a photograph. It was a photo left behind by the one who had so boldly declared she would claim her—a picture of the woman’s daughter.

The daughter in the photo looked blissfully happy. Though it was shocking to see her with a female partner rather than a man, if it made her happy, that was all that mattered. As she stared at the picture, tears began to flow down the woman’s face. Rachel, the woman imprisoned in the Archive, hated herself for being here.

“I wanted to leave... so badly.”

“I wanted to meet my daughter and embrace her, to tell her how well she’d grown.”

“If my husband had passed, I thought I could stay with her, with Reyna.”

“But that’s beyond me now. I’m already dead, just a record. For as long as the Archive endures, I’m destined to spend an eternity here, alone.”

Perhaps she wasn’t even the real Rachel but merely the memory of the deceased Rachel, preserved here before her soul could enter the cycle of reincarnation. She might not be the true Rachel at all. If that were the case, she thought, maybe it would be easier to accept this absurd situation, no matter how much she hated it.

“Sob... sob...”

“I really hate seeing beautiful women cry.”

As she wept, a familiar, stirring voice reached her ears, a voice she missed deeply. A voice that shouldn’t be heard here, the voice of the woman who should be with her daughter. Rachel wondered if it was just a hallucination, but when she turned her head, there was the white-haired woman, smiling lovingly at her.

“Huh?”

“It’s even worse if the one crying is my woman. I mean, I love it when you cry in bed, but this? This messy crying isn’t doing it for me. Reyna would be sad too.”

With a foreboding glow emanating from a strange orb she was rolling in her hand, she stashed it away and confidently walked toward Rachel.

“How are you here?”

“Hello, Rachel.”

The white-haired woman, who shouldn’t exist here as merely a record, smiled warmly as she embraced Rachel and kissed her deeply. Then she whispered to her.

“Stay here with me for 100 years. I’ll make sure to get us out of this hell.”

At her words, a spark of hope rekindled in Rachel’s heart, and tears poured from her eyes.