TAPGB - Chapter 137
The Abandoned Prince's Ghost Bride
As expected, the next scene was Odell and Aria telling two people about their relationship.
Carcerine reacted as expected, and Leon froze. Finally, Odell and Aria were taken aback when they saw him passing by without saying a word.
‘I guess it’s because he was so surprised. I was surprised too, but is he so surprised?'
‘...Is he?'
Although Carserine told him not to worry, Odell, who was seeing his brother for the first time in a year, was concerned about Leon. In the end, he followed behind Leon.
'Brother! Are you in a bad mood? Or did something happen on the way?’
Leon was handing a jacket to one of the employees. He looked at Odell for a moment, then ignored him and went on to change his clothes.
Odell was very embarrassed because even though there had been several fights, there had never been such one-sided disregard.
After the employees had left, Odell hesitantly approached Leon, who was adjusting his clothes while looking in the mirror.
‘... Brother.'
‘Odell.’
‘Uh, uh... !’
When his name was called for the first time, Odell smiled brightly.
‘I’m tired so go out.’
But his shoulders couldn't help but sag as he continued to speak. Odell became discouraged by the cold words spoken without even looking back.
‘Let’s talk later...?’
Odell tried his best to smile until he left. But there was no answer.
After Odell left, Leon, who was left alone in the room, broke the mirror with his fist. The room soon became a mess due to his rampage.
“...Since that day, I haven't had a proper conversation with my brother. When we did talk, it was all business-related stuff.”
Lucian turned his head to look at Odell's low-slung figure.
After that, Leon continued to consistently ignore Odell. In the end, Arya, who was worse than him, came forward and criticized Leon.
‘Do it in moderation. If you're angry, you should say it. Why are you doing this to Odell? Is Odell your neighborhood drum? Does he have to keep accepting your anger because he’s your younger brother?’
Everyone watching was so nervous. Especially Lucian, who knows all the circumstances.
As Arya glared at Leon and left, Leon's eyes suddenly changed. The leader of the warlocks, Caligo, came to his side.
‘...Didn't I tell you? No one truly gives for Your Majesty.’
‘...’
‘I will give your Majesty strength. Get what you want with it.’
‘...What do I want?’
‘The warlock’s eternal well-being.’
Caligo quietly opened his eyes.
‘We have been persecuted for countless years. Now we are the only warlocks left in the empire. I'm sick and tired of being chased. If Your Majesty becomes a strong fence for us, I promise to obey you with great strength and forever.’
‘I have no magical talent. But how can you give me strength?’
‘Please don’t think that I am the same as an ordinary wizard. Because we have our own way.’
In the end, Leon joined hands with the warlock. They sacrificed 100 people to turn Leon into a warlock.
That was the beginning of a bloody history.
From then on, the story went according to what Lucian was familiar with through Carcerine's letters. And finally, the day of the decisive battle arrived.
“...At that time, I was planning to propose to Arya by showing her the house we would live in together.”
It was a mansion that had been prepared even before Leon came, and since he had no chance to talk properly with Leon, he only revealed his plan to propose to Arya after completing all his preparations.
‘I plan to propose to Arya by showing her the mansion I built. I know that my brother is avoiding me these days, but I feel like I need to tell you about this.’
'Proposal of marriage... Do you do it?’
For the first time since the Cold War, Leone reacted. Odell, who accepted it positively, nodded his head at this point.
'You remember? Ever since I was little, I said I wanted to raise a happy family in a two-story mansion. I built a mansion to live in together on the side of the mountain. Because neither I nor Arya like crowded places.’
Is it because he hasn't talked to his brother in a while?
Odell was excited and started talking about what rooms were made in the mansion and how it was structured.
‘I prepared a place in the basement for Arya to study her magic. She said that when she was little, her dream was to have a lab or something like that in the basement.’
Before he knew it, Odell was smiling brightly and talking, forgetting about his awkward relationship with Leon. He didn't even notice that Leon's face turned cold.
‘I’m going to propose now. I told Arya to be there in advance. Now that I told my brother, she light-heartedly proposes...'
Deep!
Odell, who turned around with a bright smile, paused. It was because of a foreign sound that did not fit the current situation.
Soon, a tingling pain spread through his stomach and his vision became dizzy. Odell lowered his head with trembling eyes.
‘...Uh?'
There was a knife stuck in his stomach. That too was the knife that Leon stabbed.
With his expressionless face, Leon pushed the knife into Odell's abdomen with more force. Odell cried out and vomited blood.
‘Brother, why me...?’
‘Because you are an abomination.’
Odell's eyes trembled and soon tears formed. The tears were not caused by pain but by the betrayal of his beloved brother.
‘Are you proposing to Arya? No, you can't marry Arya. I am the one who will marry Arya.’
Odell's eyes grew as big as a flower lantern. Only then did he realize why his older brother had ignored him until now. And what is he talking about?
‘Who should you marry if you whine all day and can’t do anything but support me? Do you really think you are a good fit for Arya? The illusion is also oily resin.’
‘Cough, cough...!’
Even if he wanted to retort, Odell couldn't speak because of the blood rising from his mouth. Moreover, when he tried to use magic, the mana array was disturbed, making it impossible to use magic.
Odell grabbed Leon's hand, which was holding a knife with his bloody hand, but Leon shook him off, frowning as if he had touched something dirty.
Odell lost his balance and fell to the floor.
‘I’m better suited to Arya than a coward like you. Can you imagine who will be by Arya’s side as you slowly die here?’
‘Arya....’
Odell caught Leon's feet as he was about to leave.
‘...You don’t want this.’
Even though he had suffered a terrible betrayal, the golden eyes looking up at Leon were pure and transparent. As if that was really annoying, Leon scowled and kicked Odell in the face.
So Leon left and Odell slowly died.
Lucian muttered as he saw Odell's blood pooling on the floor.
“I know why you’re showing me this.”
Lucian's eyes fell on Odell next to him. Odell was smiling with a sad expression.
“You are my past life, right?”
“...That's right."
A feeling of discomfort he felt every time he looked at Odell’s past. The moment Odell was betrayed by Leon, it felt like his own heart was being torn apart. But that alone wasn't enough to convince Lucian.
“Ever since I was young, I have occasionally had strange dreams. There I spent happy days with someone. I couldn't be that sad after waking up from the dream. I thought I’d never see them again.”
Although he forgot the contents of the dream, Lucian didn't forget his feelings because it wasn't the first time it happened.
“So why did you show me this?”
However, he only said that he knew that Odell was his past life, and he never said that he accepted that fact.
“Stop my brother. Too many people have been sacrificed because of him.”
“...”
“The only one who can stop you is you. Please stop my brother and save Arya.”
Lucian's eyebrows twitched. He walked up to Odell and looked down at him, who was a little smaller than him.
“Don’t be mistaken. I was planning on taking care of it myself even if you didn’t say so.”
“...Yes."
“And you haven’t answered my question yet. If you knew in advance that something like this would happen, what would you do about Leah?”
In Lucian's eyes, Odell seemed to regret not recognizing Leon's feelings. As if she would have given Arya to him if he had known.
Odell, realizing what Lucian was saying, kept his mouth shut. Seeing his hesitation, Lucian burst into tears and grabbed Odell by the collar.
“She’s the woman you love. Are you saying that brothers are more important to you than love? How much does Leah love you?!”
The image of Leah crying Odell's name flashed before his eyes as he recalled the memory.
Now that he knows that the two were lovers, he can see that it wasn't just longing.
Leah was so distressed and sad, but Lucian couldn't forgive her former lover for thinking of giving his lover to his brother.
“Someone like you doesn’t deserve to love Leah.”
Lucian roughly threw Odell by the collar and passed him.
Lucian moved his feet to the portal he had come through. Odell sighed as his new brother disappeared.
“... I hate myself like this too. I wanted someone who was confident like my brother and knew how to protect his woman. I’m glad my reincarnation is you.”
Odell closed his eyes as he watched the portal slowly disappear.
“But Lucian, one day you will have to make the same choice I did.”
Even then, will he be able to choose love without hesitation?
Odell's body slowly scattered. Soon his body disappeared from the world along with a bright light.
***
“Lucian!”
Lucian opened his eyes, fluttering his eyelashes at the sound calling him.
“...Age.”
Lucian blinked a few times in the blurry vision and saw Age's figure. Lucian, who had been dazed for a moment, raised his upper body.
As he touched his forehead, he saw Dio lying in a pool of blood at the end of his field of vision.
"Dio!"
When he suddenly woke up, his head started spinning. Age supported him.
“If I had been a little later, he would have been in big trouble.”
James and Harry were by Dio's side. Age must have taken care of him, so the wounds were not visible beyond his torn clothes.
Lucian finally let out a trembling breath.
“...Age, how are you here?”
Then suddenly, Lucian wondered how Age, who had gone elsewhere, was in the imperial palace.
“The palace is in chaos right now, Lucian.”
Harry answered instead of Age. According to Harry's explanation, a warlock had taken control of the imperial palace 30 minutes ago.
It is said that they dressed up as priests to catch people off guard and attacked the knights and other attendants one by one, rendering them unable to resist.
“Not only that, they have set up a barrier to prevent reinforcements from outside.”
When Lucian turned his head to follow the direction Age pointed, he saw a dark sky beyond the window. It felt like it was night.
However, if he looked closely, what was surrounding the sky was a barrier in the form of a dark curtain.
“I would have had a hard time getting in if it weren’t for the summoning stone I gave you earlier.”
Some time ago, when Agw was in charge of Lucian's education, he created a magic stone that could summon him in case of an unexpected situation.
James remembered that and quickly broke the summoning stone in Lucian's office.
“...I heard a loud noise in the garden and thought someone had attacked me, but that wasn’t the case.”
James and Harry, who were working, clearly saw what was happening in the garden. And then they realized that what Lucian and Leah had feared had come true.
“I understand that the place where the Emperor and his wife are is also facing a confrontation with warlocks.”
“Leah...?”
Harry closed his mouth at Lucian's trembling voice. When Harry and Age looked dark, Lucian became anxious.
“What about Leah!”
“Leah was taken away by Leon.”
Lucian’s heart is pounding! And he sat down. As calmly as Harry could muster, he explained what he had seen.
“But I don’t think you need to worry too much. At least it doesn’t seem like the first Emperor is trying to harm Leah.”
“I know where it is. Because there are places within the imperial palace where strict barriers have been put in place very blatantly.”
It was a hall with a throne.
“Caesar also noticed something strange and moved, but it seems like it’s not here.”
“...It would be nice to have Caesar, too.”
They talked about how to overcome this situation.
“It would be too reckless to charge in on our own. We need to gather reinforcements.”
“What do we do with all the money? The opponent is a warlock and a 300-year-old monster. Do you think a single human can deal with it?”
Opinions were divided. Harry was on the side of being fully prepared, while Age was on the side that they should move on their own right now.
Since both had a point, it was not an easy decision.
Comments
Post a Comment