TAPGB - Chapter 70
The Abandoned Prince's Ghost Bride
"This is the place."
They arrived at the room where Leopold was. From the moment Lucian entered the room, his breath was taken away.
'Leopold...'
His brother, who had been waving at him just a few hours ago, was lying there as if he were dead.
Lucian barely managed to gain strength on his shaking legs and approached Leopold.
"Why are you so cold? Your body tends to have a lot of heat."
Lucian immediately massaged Leopold's hands, arms, and legs. They said he simply lost consciousness, but why does he look like a corpse?
"Your Highness, how is treatment possible?"
"... I'll give it a try."
Lucian immediately drew mana into his hand and checked Leopold's condition.
Thump-thump-thump-!
He heard the sound of something hitting something deep in the depths. When Lucian looked closely, he saw black smoke and white smoke fiercely clashing with each other.
'Mana conflict? It's not. Something fundamentally different...'
As Lucian was concentrating on taking a closer look, the black smoke that was fighting with the white smoke with such fierce force stopped and looked back at Lucian.
Kieeeeek!
Soon the black smoke rushed towards Lucian and attacked mercilessly.
"Ugh! Cough!"
Lucian, who was forcibly disconnected from mana due to the sudden repulsion, stumbled, coughing up blood.
"Uh, Your Highness!"
Dane was scared and helped Lucian up. Lucian coughed up blood a couple more times and looked at Leopold with trembling eyes.
"Oh God...!"
Dane's startled scream was heard.
Black smoke flowed from Leopold's entire body. Black smoke billowed from side to side, found Lucian and rushed towards him.
Lucian hurriedly set up a barrier to block the intrusion of black smoke. Then black smoke dispersed in the air.
Next is you.
Even though no voice was heard, the fierce will of the black smoke was clearly felt. That black smoke was targeting Lucian. Maybe it wants him more intensely than Leopold.
"Are you okay, Your Highness?!"
"No one can cure this."
Lucian wiped the corners of his bloody mouth as he watched the black smoke disappear.
"What do you mean..."
"At least not with my own strength. No... Maybe it's something that humans can't solve."
Dane looked at Lucian in confusion but was devastated when he realized he was telling the truth.
"What should I do..."
"Is that true?"
Another person's voice overlapped Dane's voice. When she turned her head, Ruber was standing there.
"Your Majesty..."
"Dane, I will ask about your mistakes next time. Please step aside now."
Dane's mouth, which was about to cover Lucian, closed.
"What on earth makes you think you can't treat the Crown Prince?"
"... Even if I explain it, you won't understand."
"I decide whether I understand or not. Tell me what you found out."
Lucian frowned and stood up, seeing Leopold covered in smoke again.
"His Highness the Crown Prince, there is a foreign energy inside his body. This is a battle with His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and is half assimilated."
Although it was only a brief glimpse, the two energies were already intertwined, making it impossible to separate one from the other.
'No, I wonder if it can be extracted in the first place.'
"If someone forces their hand on him, Your Highness will suffer even greater trouble. From my perspective, it seems like only experts in the same field or outsiders can solve this problem."
"...Is there really no way?"
"For now, there is no other way than for him to overcome it alone."
"So, what you're saying is that you don't know when it will happen."
No one can guarantee that Leopold will wake up.
"Ha..."
A deep sigh was heard. Ruber touched his forehead and looked at Leopold with unfocused eyes. His eyes reflected his helplessness in being unable to do anything for his fallen son. It contains love for his son.
Lucian turned his head.
'I feel like I saw something I shouldn't have seen.'
A parent's love. Feelings he had never experienced before, even indirectly, felt quite uncomfortable and foreign.
The awkward silence continued, and Lucian opened his mouth.
"I think I did everything I could. I'll just go back now."
He tugged on the hem of Dane's clothes and gestured for him to lead him outside.
"For a moment."
Just as Lucian was about to pass by Ruber, he called Lucian over and stopped him.
"Now that Leopold has fallen indefinitely, we need someone to replace him."
Lucian gave him a look that asked what he was talking about.
"Looking at you, you acted well today. You probably haven't learned anything properly, but if you have that level of ability, you can use it in the future."
".....Are you saying you're going to use me more now?"
Lucian let out a laugh and passed by Ruber.
"I'll pretend I didn't hear this story."
Just as he was about to leave the room, the knights waiting on both sides of the door drew their swords and blocked the exit.
"That wouldn't be a bad offer, would it?"
"Are you saying that now?"
Lucian eventually looked back at him nervously.
"I'm being dragged here forcibly and imitating my twin brother, so you're saying it's not a bad offer?"
He only devoted a little time to Leopold, but he has no intention of continuing this mediocre acting.
"Starting from this coming-of-age ceremony, the Crown Prince will begin his activities in earnest. All you have to do is until the Crown Prince wakes up. If you perform well, I give you a big reward."
They say that when you're so angry, you can't even speak. Now was the perfect match.
"Don't you remember what I said about not knowing when His Highness the Crown Prince would wake up?"
"That's why I'm proposing it. Since we don't know when he will wake up, we have to appoint someone to replace him. Above all, if news of the Crown Prince's absence becomes known at such an important time, there will be trouble in the succession to the throne."
Lucian didn't like that, so he helped with today's work. Lucian, who had unintentionally hit his weak spot, clenched his fists.
"...I can't do it either. Are you looking for someone similar to me to act as a stand-in?"
However, no matter how much he sympathizes and wants to help Leopold, he doesn't want to help him by erasing his own existence.
'Being treated like that once is enough.'
His connection with the imperial family was already severed when he was sent to a haunted mansion at the age of eight.
"I will help you a few times if necessary. However, we cannot continue to postpone without making any promises."
Lucian made the final move. Soon, he pushed away the knights' swords again and tried to leave.
"Arrest him."
Ruber forcibly grabbed Lucian. Lucian, whose arms were grabbed by the knights, gritted his teeth.
"Let go of this!"
Ruber came in front of the struggling Lucian. He looked down at Lucian coldly.
"You have no choice. Sacrifice for the time being for your family."
"What! family? Abandon me as soon as I am born! Family is a topic I have never looked into before? Do not be ridiculous!"
"Lock Lucian in Leopold's room. He cannot take a single step out of the room until he accepts my offer."
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
The knights followed the Emperor's orders and dragged Lucian away. Realizing that he was sincere, Lucian gritted his teeth, thinking he couldn't let it go on like this.
'I have to escape from here, even if it means using magic..!'
As he was raising my mana, I was hit on the back of the neck for a moment.
My vision became blurry and the world spun. At the same time, Ruber was caught making a confused expression.
'Shit...'
Lucian's eyes slowly closed.
It was a dark battle.
***
[It's done...]
A sumptuous feast made from all kinds of ingredients was laid out on the table. In order to reconcile with Lucian, I put in a little more effort and created a nice statue.
[Oh, it's crooked.]
I noticed that the cake decoration was slightly crooked and quickly fixed it. Now everything is perfect.
[When will Lucian come? It's been a long time since 7 o'clock...]
He came home later than usual today. Is it because he loses track of time while playing with Dio, or is he still so angry that he doesn't come home?
If it's the former, I'm glad, but if it's the latter, I'm concerned.
[Let's talk seriously this time.]
I'm sure Caesar and I were trying to solve the problem without telling Lucian the truth.
Lucian is no longer a child that just has to be taken care of. I understand why he was so angry. Because I unintentionally ended up excluding him by saying it was for him.
[But what should we talk about first? Should I also talk about what happened in the basement?]
Should I be the first to tell him that the priests are sacrificing people in the basement and that the sacrifice includes him?
Or is it because all the humans who have lived in the mansion for a long time have not escaped death?
[Okay... It's difficult.]
No matter how well I tried to present it, I was still reluctant to say it because I only had things to say that would hurt Lucian.
However, for the sake of reconciliation, it cannot be avoided. So I waited for Lucian with a solemn heart.
About 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 1 hour, and 2 hours passed. Before I knew it, I saw the clock showing 9 o'clock and started shaking my legs nervously.
[Why aren't you coming?]
Pop! Boom boom! Pop-!
At that time, the outside became noisy, and colorful light came through the window.
It seems that the imperial family set off fireworks for Leopold's birthday. As I looked at it, my mind returned to normal.
[It's probably because I'm busy playing with Dio. Now that you're an adult, you can drink.]
The festival would have reached its peak by now. That's why he can't leave the place and remain...
I rationalized this to myself and decided to wait a little longer. Another three hours passed like that.
Dang! Dang! Dang! Dang...!
Outside the mansion, it was so quiet that it was filled with silence, and inside the mansion, the bell indicating 12 o'clock began to ring. I stood at the front gate and looked at the entrance to the fence in the distance.
[... Why aren't you coming?]
The heart that I tried to calm down by reassuring me that it would be okay has long since disappeared.
Nervousness, anxiety, and fear overwhelmed me, and positive and negative circuits operated alternately.
[Could it be that he didn't come because he didn't want to see me?]
[No. He could be sleeping at Dio's house.]
[If he was sleeping, he would have given me some news.]
[You said you would come today... !]
After shouting urgently for a moment, I suddenly remembered the time when Lucian left in the morning.
'I'm just going to meet Dio. I don't know when I'll come back.'
Lucian... He didn't say anything about coming back.
[Uh, what should I do? If Lucian really left me...]
The recent events with Lucian came to mind one by one, and regrets washed over me like a wave.
Don't build your pride over something that doesn't matter.
I should have listened at least a little bit to what Lucian said. Instead of treating Lucian like a child, treat him like an equal person. Instead of just avoiding him, I should have had a more serious conversation.
[... I should accept Lucian.]
It's true that I got scared every time he confessed to me.
A human who loves ghosts.
We can spend time together and talk, but beyond that, we can't do things that everyone else does.
It makes no sense for this terminally ill soul, who may disappear at any moment, to promise to spend the rest of my life with him.
However, if you ask how I feel about Lucian, excluding practical issues.
Well, I guess the answer would be that I don't know.
I love him, but I don't know if it's rational.
Of course, there are very few times when I feel like he is a strange man, but as someone who has raised him since childhood, just having these feelings toward him makes me feel quite guilty and sinks into self-loathing.
So, while looking at Lucian, I erased the word 'opposite sex' from my mind so as not to even think about the 'this' character.
I've known that he was single-minded toward me since he was young, but I thought this was just a fleeting feeling.
He must have become an adult because if he goes on the trip he's been longing for, he will meet many people, and among them, there will definitely be women he gets along well with.
I thought that if he fell in love with that woman, his feelings for me would quickly end.
With that in mind, I pushed Lucian away even if it meant being harsh.
[If this happens...Does it have meaning?]
Leah, did you really think that if you maintained your current relationship, you could be with Lucian for the rest of your life?
Did you think that one day, even if he went on a trip, met a new love, or started a new family, he would come back to you?
[Haha, how arrogant... If Lucian leaves, there is no way I can catch him.]
Even when I thought about breaking up with Lucian, I only imagined him coming back to me in the end. I never thought that the relationship would end so one-sidedly.
[Let's wait... There is no way Lucian would leave me like this.]
Once I let go of my negative thoughts, I regained some sense of reason.
He went out dressed only for a village outing, with pocket money, and a sword. It was not the attire of someone who had decided to run away from home.
[Besides, he left because he was angry...]
Maybe that's why he's spending all day with Dio today.
I took a seat at the front gate and just watched the fence.
[Let's wait until tomorrow.]
And so the longest night of me passed.
I never took my eyes off or moved, lest I miss even a hair on Lucian's head.
After a long and dark night, dawn broke and bright sunlight penetrated every corner of the cold mansion.
The morning passed and lunch came, but Lucian did not come. Still, she kept waiting.
One day, two days, three days, four days...
For a week to pass. Lucian never returned.
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