“But, Lady.”
He was accustomed to reminding himself of his helplessness.
I am the imprisoned prince, so I am in no position to guarantee Luce’s safety.
But it was something he had never done before to speak of his own powerlessness.
His breath was choked.
Rev, thinking of the situation where he had to admit that it was difficult to provide direct help to Luce, narrowed his eyes for a moment.
‘Chelsea doesn’t know everything about my status. She’s just guessing. That I would be the son of a high aristocrat.’
Chelsea shook her head vigorously.
“Even if you were kicked out and imprisoned, you are still a noble. Within the Vladin Empire, a family could have more influence than Menelik. I know how nobles deal with a child they don’t like. Rather than sending them into exile to increase the possibility of future plans, they choose to kill them by drying them in the first place.”
Her starting point was wrong from the beginning, but she could at least look at the situation calmly.
“So you are still worth the use of your family. Or something that can’t be killed, as Luce does to Menelik.”
‘Something that can’t be killed.’
The circuit of thought caught fire.
“I’m sorry for saying this. You can despise me for counting the situation instead of mourning what you’ve been through. But for me, this is the fastest way. Asking you to hide Luce from Menelik. I don’t care if it’s a maid or a handyman in your family, so can you tell me to let Luce stay there and hide her identity?”
“….”
“Can’t you?”
Chelsea took Rev’s hand and squeezed it, not realizing how her words affected him.
A card to be used instead of her father and uncle.
A Lady to be used as a means to consolidate power.
What that statement implies is clear. It wasn’t that they wanted to make Luce the successor. Menelik will attempt to marry Luce to a high-ranking nobleman to maintain her influence.
‘Marriage.’
Rev vaguely remembered Radanum saying that they were looking for Delmar’s wife.
If Rev keeps Luce hidden from the royal family, Chelsea will do what she wants to avoid the most with her hands.
The same was true of Rev.
‘Luce and Delmar…’
Rev, who bit his tender flesh enough to bleed, calmly thought about the situation.
“It’s impossible, lady.”
After a long silence, Chelsea was devastated by Rev’s answer but soon swallowed the emotion.
“…Yeah. I know….”
Rev narrowed his brows at the unexpectedly calm response.
“You said asking me was the fastest way. If so, do you have any other options in mind?”
Chelsea spoke with bloodless lips.
“Yes. A method that Luce would hate.”
“Lady?”
“When you return from the Duchy of Ximel, the house will already be on fire.”
Rev doubted that he had heard her correctly.
“What do you mean?”
“I’m talking about my house, not yours.”
“No, it doesn’t matter which house. Why are you burning the house down?”
“Because we have to erase the traces of Lawrence and me.”
Chelsea said calmly.
She bought an apple, and it was about two.
“It is clear that Friedrich Menelik has never seen Luce’s face. If he had known Luce, he would have approached her right away without coming to me. At best, the information that guy knows is that she is a girl and has red hair like her father.”
“….”
“I did dye the child’s hair first. But that’s it. If he asks the people in the town, “Who is Miss Chelsea’s daughter?” he will find out. Friedrich wasn’t subject to Vladin’s law, so he couldn’t do anything drastic right away on someone else’s land, but it was only a matter of time. So I’ll go with the one that takes the least time.”
But her eyes were trembling like crazy.
“I’m going to die in that fire, Revinas.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
Chelsea smiled with her trembling eyes.
“You say exactly the same thing as Dahlia. If only I could get rid of all my traces, Luce would be officially an orphan if no one in her immediate family is left.”
“….”
“It becomes impossible to determine blood ties by blood. The means to prove that she is of Menelik’s blood are gone unless he digs up Lawrence’s grave, which he doesn’t even know where it is. Because there’s no way I, who was ‘officially’ dead, could tell him his grave.”
There is a customary procedure for marriage between high-ranking families.
It is to confirm whether it is the blood of the legitimate family with the blood of the father and mother because pedigree is important.
Because of that, things like swapping with a collateral child or getting married through an adopted child no longer happen, but Friedrich will have a lot of trouble because of this procedure.
Even if he finds Luce, he won’t be able to “use her as a hand” if he can’t prove that she is Menelik’s blood.
As Rev listened to Chelsea, it occurred to him that something was missing in her speech.
Even Rev, who wasn’t good at emotions, could notice.
“After my funeral, Luce will be adopted into Dahlia’s house. It’s already been agreed upon….”
“Have you ever thought of Luce, who would be heartbroken that the Lady was burned?”
Chelsea’s trembling eyes turned faintly red.
“It will hurt. She will be upset, and she will be sad. She’ll cry a lot… Because my daughter is kind.”
But she shook her head very slowly.
“But I can assure you that it is very light compared to the tears that will be shed playing in Menelik’s hands.”
“….”
“Even if I am alive, I will die one way or another once the blood relationship confirmation process is over. There was no reason to keep me alive any longer after daring to run away with the young Lord and hiding a noble lady. Isn’t this side better than that? Rather, wouldn’t it be better to die in an accident without seeing such a nasty look? Every mother in the world would think so.”
Rev wanted to refute, but he couldn’t.
It was because it made him think of his mother, who only said, “Please be happy” when she left.
As Chelsea said, are all mothers like that?
Chelsea stopped, leaving Rev behind.
Rev threw a question instead of a refutation.
“Do you believe I will not tell Luce about this conversation?”
She closed her eyes and opened them.
“Think carefully. Would it be better for Luce to miss her dead mother or to hate her mother for plotting her death and betraying her?”
Chelsea left a small piece of pumpkin pie on the table and opened the door.
“I’m sorry.”
It was the end of a bitter conversation.
Rev’s eyes darkened in an instant.
Kiik.
When Rev opened the door, he heard footsteps in his ears.
He was someone he had never waited for, and he told him not to come back if he wasn’t going to tell the truth. But things are different today.
When he opened the door on the second floor, the uninvited guest stood still, leaning against the wall as if he had always been there.
He spoke.
“Did you enjoy your outing to the Duke of Ximel?”
It is a question to know.
Rev replied briefly.
“No.”
“It looks like Ximel’s estate didn’t look good. I wonder what could have been the reason. Was it the Duke’s husband who dared not recognize Your Highness and behaved arrogantly? Or was the Duke rude to the Lady sleeping downstairs?”
Rev, who was looking at Radanum casually putting Luce in his mouth, asked somewhat businesslike.
“You steal memories from my blood. Why do you know that even though I haven’t given you my blood yet?”
Radanum smiled.
“I have lived a very long time, Your Highness the Prince.”
“….”
“Living close to eternity, it’s not hard to guess what ordinary humans will say or do. Imagine that you have read 10,000 novels. Would it be difficult for me to predict what the characters in the next book I picked up would say or do?”
“Then why do you draw blood?”
“Should it be said… that this is the result of a small expectation that people who always act according to my thoughts will go beyond their expectations this time around? How about you, Your Highness the Prince? Imagine that you found evidence that would overturn a theory that you considered immortal. Would you feel betrayed by saying, “What I’ve believed in so far has been a lie?” Or would you be happy with joy and delight? Isn’t it the latter?”
Rev said nothing.
He was just staring at him.
“Me too. Living for a long time is much more boring than you think. Sometimes I think that it would be nice to have someone interesting to subvert and shake my thoughts like this. As you can see, it’s not going well.”
It was the same as calling the prince a clown, but Rev didn’t say anything this time.
Radanum’s corners of his mouth, which had been smiling brightly, slowly went back to normal.
Radanum’s pupils narrowed as he watched Rev’s complexion darken as if he was thinking deeply about something, but soon getting neater.
It had the same shape as the eyes of a cat watching something interesting.
“You said your prophecies are expensive, Radanum.”
“Yes. You have to pay for something more valuable and precious than money to hear it. But do you remember? You refused earlier.”
The most valuable and precious thing to Prince Aurelio of that time is obvious.
The girl sleeping downstairs.
So the Prince had previously refused. He wouldn’t have been able to trade a girl for an academic event.
But, what is it that he asks?
‘He has something he desperately wants to the point of wanting to trade it with that girl.’
Or.
‘That girl is no longer Prince Aurelio’s number one.’’
Which one?
The Prince’s voice reached Radanum’s ears as he thought.
“But, Lady.”
He was accustomed to reminding himself of his helplessness.
I am the imprisoned prince, so I am in no position to guarantee Luce’s safety.
But it was something he had never done before to speak of his own powerlessness.
His breath was choked.
Rev, thinking of the situation where he had to admit that it was difficult to provide direct help to Luce, narrowed his eyes for a moment.
‘Chelsea doesn’t know everything about my status. She’s just guessing. That I would be the son of a high aristocrat.’
Chelsea shook her head vigorously.
“Even if you were kicked out and imprisoned, you are still a noble. Within the Vladin Empire, a family could have more influence than Menelik. I know how nobles deal with a child they don’t like. Rather than sending them into exile to increase the possibility of future plans, they choose to kill them by drying them in the first place.”
Her starting point was wrong from the beginning, but she could at least look at the situation calmly.
“So you are still worth the use of your family. Or something that can’t be killed, as Luce does to Menelik.”
‘Something that can’t be killed.’
The circuit of thought caught fire.
“I’m sorry for saying this. You can despise me for counting the situation instead of mourning what you’ve been through. But for me, this is the fastest way. Asking you to hide Luce from Menelik. I don’t care if it’s a maid or a handyman in your family, so can you tell me to let Luce stay there and hide her identity?”
“….”
“Can’t you?”
Chelsea took Rev’s hand and squeezed it, not realizing how her words affected him.
A card to be used instead of her father and uncle.
A Lady to be used as a means to consolidate power.
What that statement implies is clear. It wasn’t that they wanted to make Luce the successor. Menelik will attempt to marry Luce to a high-ranking nobleman to maintain her influence.
‘Marriage.’
Rev vaguely remembered Radanum saying that they were looking for Delmar’s wife.
If Rev keeps Luce hidden from the royal family, Chelsea will do what she wants to avoid the most with her hands.
The same was true of Rev.
‘Luce and Delmar…’
Rev, who bit his tender flesh enough to bleed, calmly thought about the situation.
“It’s impossible, lady.”
After a long silence, Chelsea was devastated by Rev’s answer but soon swallowed the emotion.
“…Yeah. I know….”
Rev narrowed his brows at the unexpectedly calm response.
“You said asking me was the fastest way. If so, do you have any other options in mind?”
Chelsea spoke with bloodless lips.
“Yes. A method that Luce would hate.”
“Lady?”
“When you return from the Duchy of Ximel, the house will already be on fire.”
Rev doubted that he had heard her correctly.
“What do you mean?”
“I’m talking about my house, not yours.”
“No, it doesn’t matter which house. Why are you burning the house down?”
“Because we have to erase the traces of Lawrence and me.”
Chelsea said calmly.
She bought an apple, and it was about two.
“It is clear that Friedrich Menelik has never seen Luce’s face. If he had known Luce, he would have approached her right away without coming to me. At best, the information that guy knows is that she is a girl and has red hair like her father.”
“….”
“I did dye the child’s hair first. But that’s it. If he asks the people in the town, “Who is Miss Chelsea’s daughter?” he will find out. Friedrich wasn’t subject to Vladin’s law, so he couldn’t do anything drastic right away on someone else’s land, but it was only a matter of time. So I’ll go with the one that takes the least time.”
But her eyes were trembling like crazy.
“I’m going to die in that fire, Revinas.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
Chelsea smiled with her trembling eyes.
“You say exactly the same thing as Dahlia. If only I could get rid of all my traces, Luce would be officially an orphan if no one in her immediate family is left.”
“….”
“It becomes impossible to determine blood ties by blood. The means to prove that she is of Menelik’s blood are gone unless he digs up Lawrence’s grave, which he doesn’t even know where it is. Because there’s no way I, who was ‘officially’ dead, could tell him his grave.”
There is a customary procedure for marriage between high-ranking families.
It is to confirm whether it is the blood of the legitimate family with the blood of the father and mother because pedigree is important.
Because of that, things like swapping with a collateral child or getting married through an adopted child no longer happen, but Friedrich will have a lot of trouble because of this procedure.
Even if he finds Luce, he won’t be able to “use her as a hand” if he can’t prove that she is Menelik’s blood.
As Rev listened to Chelsea, it occurred to him that something was missing in her speech.
Even Rev, who wasn’t good at emotions, could notice.
“After my funeral, Luce will be adopted into Dahlia’s house. It’s already been agreed upon….”
“Have you ever thought of Luce, who would be heartbroken that the Lady was burned?”
Chelsea’s trembling eyes turned faintly red.
“It will hurt. She will be upset, and she will be sad. She’ll cry a lot… Because my daughter is kind.”
But she shook her head very slowly.
“But I can assure you that it is very light compared to the tears that will be shed playing in Menelik’s hands.”
“….”
“Even if I am alive, I will die one way or another once the blood relationship confirmation process is over. There was no reason to keep me alive any longer after daring to run away with the young Lord and hiding a noble lady. Isn’t this side better than that? Rather, wouldn’t it be better to die in an accident without seeing such a nasty look? Every mother in the world would think so.”
Rev wanted to refute, but he couldn’t.
It was because it made him think of his mother, who only said, “Please be happy” when she left.
As Chelsea said, are all mothers like that?
Chelsea stopped, leaving Rev behind.
Rev threw a question instead of a refutation.
“Do you believe I will not tell Luce about this conversation?”
She closed her eyes and opened them.
“Think carefully. Would it be better for Luce to miss her dead mother or to hate her mother for plotting her death and betraying her?”
Chelsea left a small piece of pumpkin pie on the table and opened the door.
“I’m sorry.”
It was the end of a bitter conversation.
Rev’s eyes darkened in an instant.
Kiik.
When Rev opened the door, he heard footsteps in his ears.
He was someone he had never waited for, and he told him not to come back if he wasn’t going to tell the truth. But things are different today.
When he opened the door on the second floor, the uninvited guest stood still, leaning against the wall as if he had always been there.
He spoke.
“Did you enjoy your outing to the Duke of Ximel?”
It is a question to know.
Rev replied briefly.
“No.”
“It looks like Ximel’s estate didn’t look good. I wonder what could have been the reason. Was it the Duke’s husband who dared not recognize Your Highness and behaved arrogantly? Or was the Duke rude to the Lady sleeping downstairs?”
Rev, who was looking at Radanum casually putting Luce in his mouth, asked somewhat businesslike.
“You steal memories from my blood. Why do you know that even though I haven’t given you my blood yet?”
Radanum smiled.
“I have lived a very long time, Your Highness the Prince.”
“….”
“Living close to eternity, it’s not hard to guess what ordinary humans will say or do. Imagine that you have read 10,000 novels. Would it be difficult for me to predict what the characters in the next book I picked up would say or do?”
“Then why do you draw blood?”
“Should it be said… that this is the result of a small expectation that people who always act according to my thoughts will go beyond their expectations this time around? How about you, Your Highness the Prince? Imagine that you found evidence that would overturn a theory that you considered immortal. Would you feel betrayed by saying, “What I’ve believed in so far has been a lie?” Or would you be happy with joy and delight? Isn’t it the latter?”
Rev said nothing.
He was just staring at him.
“Me too. Living for a long time is much more boring than you think. Sometimes I think that it would be nice to have someone interesting to subvert and shake my thoughts like this. As you can see, it’s not going well.”
It was the same as calling the prince a clown, but Rev didn’t say anything this time.
Radanum’s corners of his mouth, which had been smiling brightly, slowly went back to normal.
Radanum’s pupils narrowed as he watched Rev’s complexion darken as if he was thinking deeply about something, but soon getting neater.
It had the same shape as the eyes of a cat watching something interesting.
“You said your prophecies are expensive, Radanum.”
“Yes. You have to pay for something more valuable and precious than money to hear it. But do you remember? You refused earlier.”
The most valuable and precious thing to Prince Aurelio of that time is obvious.
The girl sleeping downstairs.
So the Prince had previously refused. He wouldn’t have been able to trade a girl for an academic event.
But, what is it that he asks?
‘He has something he desperately wants to the point of wanting to trade it with that girl.’
Or.
‘That girl is no longer Prince Aurelio’s number one.’’
Which one?
The Prince’s voice reached Radanum’s ears as he thought.
