TAPGB - Chapter 119
The Abandoned Prince's Ghost Bride
"Is there something wrong with Leopold?"
Seeing Lucian's anxious expression, Leah and Age looked at each other. Then, Caesar spoke.
"The soul that entered Leopold's body is the first Emperor."
"What?"
Caesar explained the information he and Age found at the mansion. Leah, who had only heard the general situation and was hearing the details for the first time, was so shocked that she froze.
After Caesar finished speaking, there was a bit of silence.
"Oh my, doesn't that mean that the first Emperor lived through his descendants' lives?"
James broke the silence as the flagship.
"How... How can someone do that?"
Dio was speechless due to shock.
"..."
Lucian remained frozen and could not open his mouth.
"I came in a hurry because I had no chance of winning with Leopold's soul, but I never thought he would wake up just now."
"B-but when Leah checked, she said it was okay. Then, can we relax now?"
As Dio urgently refuted Age's words, everyone looked at Leah.
"First of all, when I saw it, it looked like Leopold's soul. I didn't feel any other foreign spirits."
"What do you think when you see it? It seemed like someone else, not Leopold?"
This time, Caesar asked Dio and Lucian.
"No. I didn't get that feeling."
"He was just the older brother."
"Then that's it. Leopold defeated the first Emperor and safely recovered his body. Why are you looking so serious? Shouldn't you like it because it's a happy ending?"
Is that what Caesar said? Dio tilted his head, and Lucian was lost in thought for a moment and then looked at Leah.
She had a serious expression as she touched her forehead.
"Leah, is there something on your mind?"
"Uh? Uh...."
When Leah nodded awkwardly, Lucian took her hand.
"I don't judge you, just tell me what you're thinking. I'm okay."
Leah held their joined hands tightly.
As he said, Leah was worried that Lucian's heart might be shaken by her words.
Hasn't he been hoping and wishing for his brother to wake up? Although she was happy, she didn't want to make a mess of the situation.
"But, keeping your mouth shut like this is not the best solution."
In the end, Leah closed her eyes tightly.
"I think it's too early to jump to conclusions."
"..."
"It's really fortunate that Leopold overcame Leon and came to his senses, but it's just a coincidence. It will be difficult to prepare your mind when you go there."
"I see."
Lucian nodded calmly. It broke the viewer's heart.
"I hope I'm not mistaken. I'll check periodically. Is it Leopold or Leon?"
"I agree with Leah on this. You can't let down your guard easily. It's not like he's been living as a parasite on descendants for over 300 years for no reason."
Now that even Age agreed with Leah, he could no longer ignore her words.
Lucian felt confused about the reality of having to give up his joy and become nervous again, but he reassured himself that it would be okay if it was just a few more days of suffering after suffering for more than five years.
"Leah, what were you doing earlier?"
At that time, Caesar suddenly asked Leah in a blunt tone.
"What?"
"No, a little while ago, you called the first Emperor Leon. Why do you call him so friendly? Ah! Did you say you were reminiscing about the past?"
Everyone looked at Leah in surprise.
"You remembered the past?"
When Lucian asked carefully, Leah nodded.
"Yeah, a little bit. But, it feels like someone else's job. I guess it's because I haven't thought of everything yet."
Arya... No, it felt like it was someone else's work, perhaps because she vividly saw herself being sealed, or because she saw it from a third party's perspective.
"How far did it come to mind?"
"First of all, I was sealed."
"By any chance, did you see it in the basement?"
"...Maybe? I think I collapsed in the basement, but you told me I had to go to the imperial palace when I woke up."
"I saw that too."
"You too?"
For those who don't know the situation, Caesar explained the vision he saw in the basement.
"The one who actually sealed Arya was Carcerine. To protect Leah from the first Emperor."
"I never thought the first Emperor, who was said to be the greatest in the empire, would be such a person."
"He is a person who has already given up on being human, starting from living from generation to generation."
Dio and James gave harsh criticism.
"Still. There was a confrontation with the first Emperor before the sealing. Is there anything that comes to mind?"
"No, I can't think of that yet. The only thing that comes to mind is the memory of being sealed and just meeting Carcerine, Leon, and Odell. At that time, Leon joined hands with Carcerine and planned to take over the castle."
"Is this the part at the beginning of the storybook where the first Emperor joined hands with the red dragon?"
"That's right, right up to that point. So, this means that it happened before the empire was founded. It looks like there's no important part."
And although their relationship may not have been good at the end, it seems like they were quite close before that.
Arya's tone of voice calling Leon was quite friendly. It was a subtle detail that only Lucian could notice. If someone close to him had betrayed him, the shock would have been very great, but fortunately, Leah didn't seem to have suffered much damage other than gritting her teeth.
It may be that she hasn't recovered all of her memories yet, but Lucian felt fortunate that Leah wasn't in any trouble.
"Now that I think about it, I'm pissed. What a good thing I did! If it weren't for Odell, I wouldn't have even looked back!"
Leah shook her shoulders and muttered a curse. Lucian, who had been comforting her quietly, felt something strange about her and raised his head.
"Leah, wait a minute."
"Huh?"
"What did you say a moment ago?"
"What is it, Leon... that guy...."
"No, other than that, you mentioned someone else's name other than Leon a little while ago."
"Others? Oh, Odell?"
"Odell?”
"Yes, he's Leon's twin brother."
Lucian's eyes widened to the size of a flower lantern.
"The reason I followed Leon was because I was interested in his younger brother. But why is that happening all of a sudden?"
"Leah, the first Emperor has no brothers."
"Uh?"
“The first Emperor had no brothers. Think about his twin brother even more. The only characters in the storybook were the first Emperor, the red dragon, and Leah. There is no one named Odell among them.”
Leah was confused. However, as Lucian said, until she regained her memories, she had never heard of or seen a person named Odell anywhere.
Other than what she vaguely remembered with Carcerine when she first regained her body and woke up.
But now that she's regained some of her memory, it feels strange that Odell's name isn't written anywhere.
"It's not just that. Do you know why the ominous superstition about twins spread throughout the empire?"
"..."
"The first Emperor publicly said that twins were a symbol of ruin. When I saw the heir, twin siblings were born, but the first Emperor killed them both on the spot."
Leah's eyes widened in shock and her fists clenched.
"No way. How good was the relationship between the two? They said they couldn't live without killing each other."
"It must have been like that in the past. But, what if the relationship between the two becomes sour due to a past that cannot be recalled? What if that's why the ominous superstition about twins spread? Leah, please tell us more about this person named Odell...."
Lucian was speechless.
Because tears flowed from his purple eyes, Arya bit her lip in pain.
She pressed her red eyes and leaned her upper body forward. Her delicate shoulders trembled and a sobbing sound was heard.
"Odell... Odell to Leon......."
Her breath came out as if it were suffocating and she collapsed.
Lucian looked at that, clenched his fists, and carefully hugged Leah.
"..."
And patted her back gently. In response, Leah desperately grabbed the hem of Lucian's clothes as if they were strings and wet his shoulders.
Lucian comforted Leah in silence for a long time.
***
"What about Leah?"
The people gathered in front of the hallway approached Lucian as he came out of the room.
"She fell asleep. He continued to cry until she went to bed."
Lucian's fist gained strength. He was angry at the first Emperor who made her cry, he was jealous because he wondered if the person named Odell was so precious that she cried, and he also felt petty of himself for not being able to sincerely comfort her.
Although his head was spinning, Lucian sighed and calmed his mind.
"Did you look up what I said?"
When Leah broke down over OdeII, Lucian asked others to do one thing for him without her knowledge.
That means researching the royal family's family tree to see if there is a person named Odell.
James and Caesar went to the archives room and tried several times to find traces of Odell, but there was nothing.
"It also says that the first Emperor had no brothers."
"Like Leah, there are no records from the early days of the empire. Although Leah has been caught carrying out various tricks, it is not a person named Odell. It's like he never existed in the first place."
"Couldn't he have died before the founding of the empire?"
Age shook his head in response to Dio's question.
"The first Emperor spread an ominous superstition about twins. That must mean that he despised his twin brother extremely much. It would be more correct to say that the first Emperor took care of him rather than that he died before the nation's founding."
"But I don't think they had a bad relationship from the beginning."
At James' words, everyone turned to look at him.
"The original name of the first Emperor was Leon. After founding the kingdom, he changed his name to Abyss Odelion."
"Uh! Right "
"Yes. The last name of the imperial family. Odelion. It is a name that comes from combining the first Emperor's Leon and his younger brother Odell."
Even if you look at the last name, Leon's name is backward.
"At least at first, he loved his younger brother."
Could it be that the first Emperor betrayed him as he did to Arya and Carcerine?
"Humans are creatures of greed."
Age's words stuck in the minds of everyone suspicious of Leon.
"It may be that he harmed the people around him to make the empire his own."
The founding of the empire would not have been accomplished solely through the efforts of the first Emperor. Arya and Carcerine fully supported him, and his younger brother, who was not mentioned at all, probably supported him.
"I will investigate this matter."
"Are you okay?"
"Yes. If they had been together from the beginning, it might have been mentioned in Carcerine's letter."
".... Ah!"
Everyone was surprised when they got a clue from a completely unexpected place.
"Carcerine often sent letters to his family. Luce probably has it. Caesar, do you want to come with me?"
Caesar trembled and pursed his lips.
"I am..."
"There's something we need to check."
Everyone tilted their heads to look at the two people as the atmosphere became quite serious. Lucian approached Caesar in a slightly different atmosphere than usual.
" I will be watching Leah closely so please go and come back."
Caesar's eyes wavered for a moment but soon became firm.
"Okay, I'll come back. It won't take long."
Caesar patted Lucian's hand on his shoulder and approached Age.
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