The Billionaire CEO Becomes the Youngest Emperor

Dear readers,

I want to sincerely apologize for the unexpected breaks in publishing my work. Please know these pauses are not intentional but are due to an important exam I have to take in July. I will only be free to fully focus on writing again after July 3rd.

Thank you so much for your patience and support—it truly means a lot to me.

See you very soon!

_____________

Inside the Imperial Palace

"What's that black smoke?" exclaimed Lucian, lounging casually on his bedroom desk.

Through the window, he could make out a strange dark mist slowly engulfing the horizon, completely obscuring his view. Then, suddenly…

— Aaaaaahhhhh!

— No! Help us!

— Save us!!

Terrified, blood-curdling screams echoed through the palace — so chilling they seemed to shake its very foundations.

"What the hell is going on?!"

Lucian jumped to his feet, racing down the stairs of his room, determined to understand what was happening. Thick beads of sweat ran down his temples, and his heart pounded violently in his chest. A sense of imminent, almost supernatural danger clung to him, making him shiver.

But just as he reached the door, a familiar figure appeared in the doorway.

"Chris…?"

Lucian swallowed hard. It wasn't the sudden appearance of his butler that frightened him — Chris had a habit of showing up without warning — but this time, his appearance was… monstrous.

Chris's clothes were in tatters, eaten away by the same black mist. His skin seemed to be disintegrating, as if consumed by invisible flames. Worse still, he was barely holding up his right arm with his left — a right arm nearly torn off, dangling like a broken puppet.

Lucian stood frozen, throat tight, unable to look away. He, the confident businessman, the heir to the Empire, was at a loss for words.

Then, in a ragged breath, Chris whispered:

"Y-Your… Ma… Your Majesty…"

Blood trickled from his lips.

"You… must run… the mist…"

No sooner had the words left his mouth than he collapsed to the ground. His body lay still, slowly devoured by the mist, as though invisible flames fueled by gasoline continued their gruesome work.

Lucian dropped to his knees, eyes wide in shock.

"Chris…? Hey, Chris… Answer me…"

He reached out his hand, still holding on to a sliver of hope. But deep down, he knew it—Chris Hartner was dead.

"HEY CHRIS!!! QUIT THIS FUCKING JOKE!!!"

Lucian screamed at the top of his lungs, heart shattered into pieces.

And then...

A voice echoed—mocking, icy.

"Well, well... Seems I overestimated you, little emperor… Hahaha…"

The voice came from Lucian's bed.

There weren't many people who could sit so casually on his bed, in his private chambers.

Naturally… it was Malveria. Or rather, Ria.

"Ria, you…?" Lucian tried.

"Shut up."

A chill shot down his spine. Her tone—sharp, merciless—reduced his attempt at speaking to ashes.

"For all the arrogance you've shown me so far, you couldn't even handle this? And to think I only bumped the difficulty up a little~," she said with an amused smile.

Lucian felt the blood drain from his face. What the hell is happening?!

He couldn't make sense of a single word she was saying. It all sounded like some waking nightmare.

"Well… no point dragging it out. Kael won. And me? I lost."

As soon as those words left her mouth, two supernatural circles—blood-red and slowly rotating—appeared around her. Ria, however, didn't seem to care. She even let out a yawn.

"What is this circus?! What do you mean you lost?! And what the hell is this talk about 'difficulty'?!" shouted Lucian, now trembling from a storm of fear, anger, and confusion.

"Oh right, I forgot to mention. I gave our little 'guests' a tiny push… so they'd drop by a bit earlier than expected~."

"W-What?!"

Lucian collapsed to the ground, legs giving out. He didn't need to hear the rest to understand what she meant.

"I said two months, didn't I? But it was so boring… So I shortened the timer. Two weeks sounded more thrilling. I wanted to see if you were worth placing my trust in."

Then came the cruel smile. One that erased all doubt about her intentions.

"But you turned out to be… hopelessly incompetent~."

And with those words—treating the disaster like some twisted game—the ground beneath them began to tremble.

No… the entire palace was collapsing.

In his last fleeting moment of clarity, as reality crumbled into chaos around him, two words echoed in Lucian's mind:

DEMONIC NIGHT.

---

Back to Reality

"Ah!"

Lucian jolted upright, drenched in sweat.

His heart was pounding wildly. Around him, the luxurious interior of the imperial carriage gleamed with opulence.

He wasn't at the palace.

Not yet.

The procession had only just reached the grand gates.

At the front of the imperial caravan, mounted on his steed, Harry suddenly felt a strange wave of mana emanating from the carriage carrying Lucian.

Instinct took over.

He yanked on the reins to pull his horse back, then turned toward the carriage window. Inside, Lucian was drenched in sweat, eyes vacant, visibly shaken… as if trapped in a nightmare.

But that wasn't what disturbed Harry the most.

It was the mana. It wasn't coming from outside. It swirled around Lucian. No—worse—it seemed to be trying to manifest on its own.

---

There is a silent rule known to all masters of aura and mana:

One cannot reach Rank Seven through effort alone.

Neither training, nor theory, nor experience is enough.

To cross that threshold, one ingredient is needed—something that cannot be taught or acquired:

pure talent. The X factor.

Most people with talent, even average talent, could reach Rank Six after years of grueling work. That was already a towering achievement.

But Rank Seven...

That was the domain of the chosen. The unscalable wall.

Otherwise, why would tireless monsters like Instructor Lyne, Captain Harry himself, or even Angelos Red—the greatest mage of the Thirteenth Empire—have remained stuck at that cruel threshold for so long?

And yet today...

After the appearance of Selene, a prodigy with inhuman talent, it seemed that another aura genius had emerged.

---

Somewhere in the uninhabited regions of the Thirteenth Empire...

"No... I can't fall now..."

Free-falling from over 2,000 meters in the air, Adeline was fighting death itself.

Her body, drained of all energy, refused to respond. Not a single drop of aura remained within her.

And yet, she refused to give in.

"I mustn't fall... I won't fall... I WILL NEVER FALL!"

Her rolled-back eyes bore witness to the struggle within. She was no longer fighting an enemy.

She was fighting herself.

"Move... Move, damn it—move!!"

Only 1,000 meters now separated her from the ground. Every second mattered.

But even if, by some miracle, she could have activated a fragment of aura—it would've been pointless.

Each of her hands was bound by 800-kilogram weights, remnants of a mad training regimen. And all around her, boulders tumbled down the mountain, ready to crash into the earth with her.

Death was inevitable.

Everything was lost. There was no hope left.

"Damn...!!"

...

A flash in her memory. A phrase, a divine voice.

Suddenly, she remembered that moment... that exact moment, when the goddess had said to her:

"Ignore one more of my questions, and I will erase you from this world."

At that moment... thunder had rumbled.

But it wasn't just a simple natural phenomenon. No.

She was certain now: that thunder had responded to Lady Selene.

"Yes... It was because of her... I'm sure of it..."

And in that fall, caught between life and death, Adeline touched one of the hidden secrets of this world.

Two hundred meters from the ground.

Her eyes, previously rolled back, regained their sparkle. No. They became sharper than ever before.

The silver aura, unique to Adeline—supposed to be completely drained—burst forth from her body once again.

But this time, three times stronger.

In an instinctive reflex, she shaped this aura and channeled it along her back.

A sudden surge formed, propelling her against the mountain's face, defying the very laws of gravity.

Her hands found tiny footholds—small, but enough—to bring her fall to an immediate halt.

And in the terrifying silence of the void, one thing stood out:

Adeline's aura spread in a twenty-meter radius, radiating like a star caught in the heart of a storm.

Without wasting a second, she leapt.

One jump.

Then another.

With every push, she gained four hundred meters in altitude.

The magical bracelets she wore — each weighing over 800 kilograms — grew heavier with every meter climbed.

But now… it no longer mattered.

She moved as if those weights didn't exist.

As if gravity itself had stopped applying to her.

The stones tumbling down the mountain and entering her aura's field… shattered into dust on contact.

This mountain, which she had tried to climb in vain for hours…

She scaled it in ten minutes.

---

"Ugh…"

Adeline gasped violently, breathless, knees on the ground as she finally reached the summit.

But the moment she released her aura…

Her entire body convulsed.

Her muscles, her heart, her nerves… every fiber of her being screamed in pain.

"Aaargh… AHHHH…!!"

She writhed on the ground, teeth clenched, crushed by agony.

And then a presence stood near her.

Selene was there.

Right beside her.

Arms crossed, eyes lowered toward Adeline…

Her calm, piercing gaze contrasted sharply with the girl's torment.

She said nothing.

No one knew when she had arrived at the summit.

But she was there. Defying all logic, defying all expectations.

Selene watched her, motionless.

"Hahaha… That girl… She's a genius too."

Her face remained expressionless, as always.

But deep down, she was genuinely impressed by what she had just witnessed.

"Rank 7… at only sixteen years old?"

It wasn't a faster rise than Selene's own — who had reached Rank 9 aura at age ten.

But aside from her… no one in the continent's history had progressed so rapidly.

When Selene began that grueling training, it wasn't to immediately boost Adeline's power.

The goal was simple: to test her potential.

The regimen was designed to strengthen her body and mind over at least three years — the time needed for latent talent to awaken and, perhaps, reach Rank 7.

But Adeline had shattered all expectations.

She hadn't just shown potential.

She had proven it.

She was a monster.

Adeline didn't even notice Selene's presence.

Too consumed by pain. Too broken by the backlash.

And that was normal.

Harnessing the energy of nature — the true aura of the world — required not only talent,

but a body capable of enduring it without shattering.

Adeline had achieved the impossible.

But if she wanted to survive the next time, she would have to forge a body strong enough to handle that power without tearing itself apart with every use.

Selene watched her for a moment, silent. Then, in a soft breath:

"But… strength alone won't be enough to defeat the Leviathan."

She sighed.

The wind whispered gently at the summit of the world.