Chapter 26
Chapter 26
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 26
Chapter Title: Misunderstanding
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Rainen was spending happy days. It felt like eating the sweetest candy in the world, like walking on clouds. At first, he had been delighted yet anxious that such happiness had come to him, but a year passed with nothing happening.
So he believed it. That he could finally be happy now. He was grateful that his mother empress and brother had permitted his happiness.
“What’s going on?”
But the faint unease in that happiness came from an urgent report Kashan brought. Seeing Kashan, who usually hated even walking let alone running, rushing over made his heart sink.
“Urgent report?”
“That knight named Lukamin... he’s dead.”
“......What?”
He had to face a storm of emotions surging within him. His hands trembled. Rather than thinking about how to tell Cannivella, he felt something was wrong.
“Tell me exactly what happened.”
For now, he decided to keep it secret from her. He didn’t know precisely what Lukamin meant to her, but it was clear she’d be shocked by his death. He feared what might happen to her in her already sensitive state if he delivered such sad news.
But later, he regretted it. If only I had told her the truth right away, then maybe we wouldn’t have parted ways.
And so, the crack began from something small.
* * *
She couldn’t remember what the dream was about. But one thing was certain: its content had been horrific.
“Huh!”
Cannivella’s eyes snapped open as if in a fit. Rainen, lying beside her, embraced her, as if enveloping everything.
“It’s okay.”
Even though she hadn’t said a word, he comforted her. Once she calmed down a bit, she let out a small sigh and stroked her belly.
“I didn’t startle the baby by waking up so suddenly, did I?”
“Our child will be fine with that much.”
His expression seemed somehow uneasy as he said it, but she didn’t notice and let it pass. Right now, dispelling the unpleasant feeling enveloping her was more urgent.
‘I can’t sleep.’
She sighed, gazing at the sunlight streaming through the window. After lightly kissing the cheek of her sleeping husband, she headed to her private library. The scent of books soothed her.
She chuckled softly. In the past, she would have grabbed her sword and swung it wildly if this happened. But now, not only was that not feasible, Rainen didn’t even know she could wield a sword.
So, unintentionally, it had become a secret. Since then, she had relieved her worries by reading books instead of using her sword.
Flipping through the pages brought her a sense of peace. The maids kept refilling her tea and bringing cookies. In the end, she read in the library until the sun was high in the sky.
“Let’s head back now.”
“Yes.”
Eora and Ray, who had been waiting outside until she emerged, followed behind her. Eora tilted her head at Ray’s strangely pleased expression. Ray responded to Eora’s gaze with a sly grin.
However, the crown princess palace was oddly hectic. It was noisy and chaotic. For Cannivella, who disliked such atmospheres, it was both irritating and bewildering.
“Is that really true?”
“Have you ever heard me tell a story that wasn’t?”
“But how is that even possible? Even royalty has tight security.”
“That’s why that knight was a monster.”
In the midst of the disorder, she spotted Aiko, the talkative maid spreading rumors. And then... she understood why she’d felt uneasy all day.
“Your Highness, have you heard the rumor? The queen of Rasoni Kingdom was assassinated!”
“......What?”
The father who had abandoned her in hell and avoided her alone. The longtime bystander to her pain. The coward who clung to the Muila family, ignoring reality. The one she hadn’t thought of once since coming here.
And now, that father was dead? She felt empty. If that man was going to die so pointlessly, she would have killed him herself long ago. With a sneer, she buried deep the hatred for her now directionless father.
But the shock didn’t end there.
“And the culprit was... uh... oh, someone really famous!”
Normally, she would have found Aiko’s behavior cute, but she had no leisure for that now. It felt like she was hearing something she shouldn’t. As if hearing it would make something crumble.
“I know who it is. That knight, Lu-something.”
Suddenly, the maids swarmed around the chatty Aiko. They began excitedly chattering about the incident rocking the continent. Amid it all, the name starting with ‘Lu’ gave her a bad feeling.
No. Don’t say it. Please don’t say it!
She wanted to cover her ears. Please, let it not be the person I’m thinking of. But heaven was not on her side.
“Ah! Lukamin! It was the knight named Lukamin!”
“But didn’t that knight get executed?”
“......!”
Lukamin! She hadn’t heard from him since they parted a year ago. She’d investigated his whereabouts but found nothing, and she never imagined he’d deliver news like this. Yet she wanted to deny that one part above all.
That Lukamin was already dead! Why? How? You promised to stay alive and meet me!
“......Is that true?”
Suppressing the rage and screams rising from her heart, she asked the maids. But the busy gossiping maids didn’t notice. They kept chirping endlessly. Though she was at the center of the noise, she couldn’t hear a thing.
“......”
Lukamin had been the only one she could rely on amid her mother’s death, her father’s abandonment, and the violence from the rest of the family. He was more than a mere subordinate. Sometimes a teacher, sometimes a knight, sometimes a father.
Her mind felt blank. This wasn’t what she’d hoped for. She’d wanted to proudly punish the culprit together and live together. Unknowingly, she shouted at the maid.
“Is it true?!”
As crown princess, she was generally kind to her people. That’s why they followed her, forgetting the intimidating aura she could show. Feeling her presence again after so long, they trembled.
“W-well, I heard it from a friend of mine who’s a maid in Rasoni Kingdom...”
The maid’s story was this: After seven years, Lukamin Takirai appeared in Rasoni Kingdom. But for some reason, he assassinated the queen. He was immediately captured and executed on various charges. And this execution... Rainen had intervened.
To make Cannivella forget everything quickly and focus on him, he’d conspired with Queen Muila to kill Lukamin.
No way. That can’t be. Rainen had promised her about this. And as far as she knew, he was the most trustworthy person. Not forced by his position as crown prince, but someone who sincerely kept his promises, upright and true.
And she knew he’d been digging into the truth of the incident through her secret organization for days now. So the rumor was even harder to believe. If Lukamin were truly dead, he wouldn’t have kept it from her.
But she couldn’t think further. Her mind, overwhelmed by too great a shock at once, couldn’t process more information.
“Ah......”
Her vision went dark, her body buckled. Everything blurred in an instant. She felt someone calling her, but she heard nothing.
I don’t want to see anything. I don’t want to hear anything.
And so she collapsed.
Rainen was extremely busy. While diligently approving documents as usual, an emergency meeting arose.
“What’s the matter?”
“We’ve caught the murderer.”
For some time, serial killings had plagued the capital. At first, commoner women were the victims. But the targets expanded. Beyond the weak like women, children, and elders, even men and nobles became victims.
A pall of fear hung over the capital. The lively nights vanished; as darkness fell, people rushed to lock their doors. Streets lost their vitality, filled only with chill. The populace trembled in anxiety, starting to suspect one another.
At first, it wasn’t taken seriously, but with victims numbering over a hundred, even the palace had to take interest. Under the emperor’s orders, a massive manhunt was launched, but the culprit’s tracks remained elusive.
Then, the culprit tormenting them was caught at the border of Sistia Kingdom.
At those words, he set aside the documents he was approving and looked at the attendant. The attendant quickly led him to the conference room. Several nobles were already seated. As he took his place, the emperor arrived.
“Let’s begin the meeting.”
“Since he was caught near Sistia Kingdom, they’re keeping a tight watch.”
“We’ve explained the situation, but they’re being completely unreasonable.”
The problem was that the culprit had been caught right on the Sistia Kingdom border. With one foot already across the line, punishment became ambiguous. Should Luminir Empire execute him, or Sistia Kingdom?
The emperor found such diplomatic issues a headache. Seizing the opportunity, the kingdom claimed the empire had released the murderer, who nearly crossed over, so they should handle the punishment and pay compensation.
It was absurd nonsense, a ploy to gain leverage by fabricating debt. The empire wasn’t so lax as to fall for it. At that moment, Rainen proposed a clever ploy.
“Let’s just give them what they want.”
And falsify the murderer’s identity to make him a Sistia Kingdom native.
“That’s far too dangerous!”
“The kingdom will figure it out.”
The nobles opposed it as too risky, but some nodded. If the empire put its mind to it, manipulating information was no great feat. Moreover, the Remiachi family, where all intelligence converged, was here.
“Good idea.”
“It’s undoubtedly the perfect way to corner them.”
With the four great ducal houses agreeing, the other nobles reluctantly nodded. They were curious how exactly they’d corner Sistia Kingdom.
‘Let them suffer some humiliation!’
The noble faction quietly agreed while watching Rainen’s expression. They wondered when that confident look would crumble. They wanted to seat Raibus there as soon as possible.
Rainen inwardly sighed as he watched their naked ambitions. Their brazenness was utterly tiresome and exhausting.
‘This is truly exasperating.’
He wanted to return quickly to the woman who stabilized him. Seeing the moon rise, he thought of her alone in bed and felt sorry. Too many things had exploded in a single day, leaving him no peace.
Time passed relentlessly. But follow-up measures and negotiations with Sistia Kingdom kept him occupied. Deciding the murderer’s fate and sentence, resolving diplomatic issues required nonstop meetings day and night.
In the end, his scheme worked, but the kingdom’s suspicions couldn’t be avoided, so proving the facts took much time. Countless documents exchanged hands, and as the one who conceived it, he had to oversee and direct everything.
With so much work, he barely had time to see Cannivella, let alone think of her. He snatched sleep in his office, wolfed down meals sitting down. Waking to mountains of documents, he routinely approved them fighting drowsiness.
“Your Highness, are you alright?”
Seeing the dark circles under his eyes, his aides scraped together manpower for swift handling. Meanwhile, materials from Erical piled up. He pushed through with superhuman effort, and it took a month to resolve.
In that time, harsh winter passed, spring brought life sprouting, thawing fields turning moist.
Finally, everything ended. But by then, she had left him.