THST - Chapter 168

Episode 168. I'll Always Be By Your Side

"S-S-This is overwhelming."

Rose forced a smile at the monsters' piercing gazes.

At that moment, one of the fallen men groaned and got up.

"Ugh, ugh..."

The monster, with its gaze fixed on Rose, swung its arm at the man.

"Ugh!"

Seeing the man collapse without any strength from a single punch, beads of sweat formed on Rose's forehead.

'Don't be nervous. I can control monsters. They won't attack me.'

However, contrary to her resolve, her legs trembled.

The beasts' gazes were too fierce. Their blood-red eyes felt threatening, as if they were about to devour her.

"Wh-It's scary!"

The only monsters she had seen so far were pitch-black unicorns and baby monsters.

So, no matter how hard she tried to calm herself, she couldn't help feeling scared. Perhaps sensing Rose's fear, the monsters didn't approach her. They simply stared at her quietly.

The young monsters, perhaps aware of Rose's feelings or not, simply shook their rear excitedly.

Rose's lips, parched and dry, licked. Her eyes, burning with anxiety, flickered endlessly.

Rose squeezed her eyes shut and shouted the same simple command she had given Finn.

"Everyone, get down!"

The moment Rose's voice ended, a thud was heard.

It was the sound of the massive monsters all simultaneously dropping down.

Rose opened her narrow eyes and checked before her.

"!"

All the monsters were lying down, as Rose had commanded. And they were doing so very obediently.

Gaining confidence, Rose repeated the same command a few more times.

"Get up! Sit down!"

Surprisingly, they carried out Rose's command without question.

"Raise your right arm! Raise your left foot! Roll to the left! Roll to the right!"

With each movement of the monsters, the ground shook with a tremor.

Thump, thump, thump!

Nearby, Neruan and the Grand Duke of Artaeum felt a faint, resonating vibration.

They looked into each other's eyes, nodded, and without a word, ran into the mountains.

Suddenly, they felt a strange vibration.

They felt that Rose would be on that mountain.

The Grand Duke and Neruan had been running for a while, and a fork in the road appeared before them.

The Grand Duke looked straight down, checking for any remaining wagon tracks.

However, the tracks were parallel.

Which way should Rose go?

While they were lost in thought, the ground shook again, as if it were about to collapse.

Thump.

The vibration felt even closer than before.

There was no time to ponder.

"I'll go this way, Neruan, you go that way,"

The Grand Duke ordered Neruan and quickly disappeared. After the Grand Duke left, Neruan also set out to find Rose.

He ran for a long time along the winding fork in the road.

“Haa... Haa...”

Even as his breath nearly pounded, Neruan didn’t stop.

He had to find Rose. That was why he couldn’t rest even for a moment.

As he ran endlessly, something caught his eye.

“That’s...!”

A pure white object is faintly visible through the dirt.

It was definitely a human hand.

Neruan ran with wide eyes.

Praying fervently that what he saw wasn’t Rose’s hand, he ran forward.

The faint object became clearer as he drew closer.

He could immediately tell that the fallen man wasn’t Rose.

A man wearing the Grand Duke's uniform was lying there. Unlike what he had seen from afar, the hand was quite rough.

Neruan immediately checked the man’s face.

“!”

It wasn’t Rose’s escort knight. A completely unfamiliar man was wearing the Grand Duke's uniform.

Neruan immediately realized that the man was the mastermind behind Rose's kidnapping.

'But... why is he lying down?'

The joy of finding Rose nearby was fleeting, but something strange began to creep into Neruan's mind.

'Is there some kind of internal conflict?'

Surely... it couldn't have been done alone.

It didn't occur to him that the knights of the Grand Duke of Artaeum would have fallen to a single man.

Nearby...there might be others hiding.

Neruan urgently scanned his surroundings. However, finding others in the middle of the night in the mountains, devoid of any light, wasn't easy. As he cautiously stepped forward, something struck his foot with a dull thud. Neruan immediately lowered his head and examined his feet. 

“!” 

Another person had collapsed. Apparently, the black mask he was wearing had made it difficult to see. Neruan glanced around, trying to find anyone else. Surprisingly, quite a few people had collapsed on the ground. After climbing up past the rows of fallen people, he faintly heard a familiar voice. 

“...That’s right.” 

“This voice...!” 

It was definitely Rose’s voice. Neruan quickly ran after hearing Rose’s voice. The thought that Rose was safe calmed his heart. He shouted Rose’s name. 

“Rose!” 

Neruan ran, and ran, through the darkness. And finally, he found Rose. 

“Rose...! My dear...?” 

Neruan, who had been trying to comfort Rose, who might be crying alone in the mountains, was speechless at the unimaginable sight. Rose was dominating the ferocious monsters. Rose, who had been leisurely sitting atop a pitch-black unicorn, spotted Neruan and opened her eyes wide. 

“Huh? Neruan?” 

The monsters were poised as if ready to attack Neruan at any moment. Drool dripped from between their sharp teeth, soaking the floor. Rose, sensing the monsters’ excitement, spoke in a soft voice. 

“It’s okay, my friend.” 

At Rose’s single word, the monsters that had been bristling with sharp fur lowered their tails. Rose leisurely dismounted from the black unicorn’s back and spoke to Neruan. 

“Neruan, how did you get here?” 

Neruan breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of Rose, unharmed. 

“Haa... I’m glad you’re safe.” 

Neruan muttered softly, drenched in sweat. He felt like hugging Rose right then and there. He wanted to ask if she was okay, if she was hurt. But it would be rude to ask Rose, who was already the Grand Duke's wife. He suppressed his feelings and took each step slowly. 

“I was worried. You’re not hurt, are you?” 

Neruan continued forward without taking his eyes off Rose. 

“Yes. I’m fine. By the way, Neruan. Your hair... has changed?” 

Rose looked at Neruan with wide eyes. In fact, at first, she didn’t think it was Neruan. The soft hair reflecting the moonlight exuded a truly mysterious aura. Neruan approached Rose with slow steps. He muttered in a low voice, 

“...Is something strange?” 

“No, it’s not weird. You're so pretty!” 

Rose stared at Neruan, her eyes sparkling. Neruan’s earlobes flushed at Rose’s seemingly insignificant compliment. A smile formed on Rose’s face for no reason at Rose’s seemingly meaningless words. However, Neruan’s smile didn’t last long. The Grand Duke, who had taken a different route, arrived late. 

“Rose!!” 

At the sound of the Grand Duke's voice, Rose’s gaze turned to him. As soon as the Grand Duke appeared, Rose’s face immediately brightened. Her eyes were gently rounded, and her smile bright. It was a completely different expression from when she saw Neruan. 

Neruan, who was watching Rose from right in front of him, clutched his throbbing heart. The woman he loved loved another man, not him. Even though he already knew that, his heart ached. Rose passed Neruan in front of him and ran towards the Grand Duke. Neruan could do nothing. All he could do was quietly watch their reunion. Rose's eyes were filled only with the Grand Duke. And, beside her, Neruan's eyes silently followed her. 

Rose, clutching her voluminous skirt in one hand, ran toward the Grand Duke. Then, she was suddenly caught in his arms. The Grand Duke, without a word, embraced Rose fiercely. When he heard the news of Rose's kidnapping, he felt like he was going crazy. He was incredibly grateful to be able to see Rose again like this.

He held Rose in his arms for a long time before finally speaking.

“...Look at your face.”

His wavering eyes fixed on Rose.

“...Are you okay?”

“I’m sorry. I really wanted to go to the coronation, but things got a little messed up.”

“What does that matter? It’s more important that you’re okay like this."

The Grand Duke stroked Rose’s face with a trembling hand.

“I’m sorry I sent you away alone. I should have gone with you...”

If he had gone with her... Rose wouldn’t have ended up in such a difficult situation.

“It’s okay. My ability to control monsters has shone.”

Rose tilted her head slightly, her expression confident.

“Look at this. My friends are so strong.”

Rose shrugged, pointing to the fallen people.

As Rose shrugged, the monsters around her shrugged as well.

“Did you kill them all?”

As soon as the Grand Duke finished speaking, the fallen man groaned.

“Ugh...”

The black unicorn stomped on the man’s back, knocking him out again.

“No. I knocked him out. I need to uncover the mastermind, but I can’t just kill him like this, right? He’ll have to die after that. To kidnap a vulnerable lady deep in the mountains like this, I’ll punish him severely.”

Rose, laughing with one hand covering her mouth, looked strangely villainous.

It was almost as if she were overlapping with the Grand Duke. They say that love becomes like the person you love, and Rose was starting to resemble him in this way.

Grand Duke Artaeum smiled, seemingly extremely satisfied with Rose’s appearance.

“I won’t let anyone who tries to harm you go unpunished.”

For a fleeting moment, a chilling gaze passed through his eyes, sending shivers down his spine. He changed his expression again, looking at Rose with gentle eyes.

“I will never leave you alone again.”

The Grand Duke lightly kissed the back of Rose's hand and muttered softly,

"So... be my Empress. I will always be by your side."

Rose's eyes widened at the Grand Duke's voice.

'Wait... a proposal... here like this?'

She blinked in bewilderment.

In the desolate mountains, it was a proposal without any mood.

In her previous life, she had married without a proposal to speak of.

In this life, she wanted to make things right.

Rose answered softly to the Grand Duke, who was staring at her with longing eyes.

"... Yes."

Her mumbling voice was lost in the wind.

Although Rose couldn't hear what he was saying, the Grand Duke, believing she would accept his proposal no matter what, nodded with a satisfied smile.

"Yes. I'm sure you've been waiting for this moment too."

"Your Majesty."

Rose called out clearly to the Grand Duke, who was as delusional as ever.

“You didn’t hear what I said, did you? I asked you to wait a moment.”

“Yes, yes... What!?”

The Grand Duke nodded quietly, but confusion filled his eyes.

Asking him to wait... It was no different from rejecting a marriage proposal.

However, asking him to wait wasn’t a rejection. It was simply a desire to propose to the Grand Duke. Rose looked up at the Grand Duke and smiled brightly.

‘I need to propose properly in this life.’

In other words, Rose was asking him to wait because she was going to propose.

However, the Grand Duke had no way of knowing what she meant.

Rose politely bowed to the Grand Duke and then gestured to the black unicorn behind her.

“I’ll go to the Grand Duke's residence first. Your Majesty, Neruan, please take your time.”

With those words, Rose mounted the black unicorn and disappeared like the wind.

“...”

The Grand Duke remained frozen in place even after Rose left. Neruan approached the stone-hardened Grand Duke.

“Rose... Rose rejected me!”

The Grand Duke, incredulous, grabbed Neruan’s shoulder.

“It didn’t seem like she was specifically rejecting me, but...”

There was no need to tell the Grand Duke.

Neruan simply patted the Grand Duke on the back without saying anything.

With the Grand Duke devastated by Rose’s single word, it was entirely up to Neruan to arrest the fallen kidnappers.

“Your Majesty, would you like to do this together!?”

But in the end, Neruan took care of everything. The Grand Duke, still sobbing, was of no help.

The mastermind behind this was soon revealed: the deposed Emperor's tantrum. His tantrum only hastened his death.

The day before his execution, the Grand Duke held a banquet to celebrate his ascension to the throne.

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