Chapter 40
Chapter 40
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 40
Chapter Title: The Collapsing Wall
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The house, already in dire straits, was dealt a fatal blow by the monster's desperate thrashing.
Claws that looked as hard as iron gripped the wall before tearing it clean off in a frenzy of flailing.
The wall by the window began to crumble with a deafening roar.
As one entire wall was ripped away, a massive rush of oxygen poured in, and a sharp pop echoed from the flames.
And with that, my body lifted into the air.
"You...!"
The prince's shocked face slowly receded from view.
My body, caught in the blast, soared through the air for a moment before being slammed brutally to the floor.
A horrific pain shot up my back, but it was nothing compared to what I'd endured before.
Because my body was so small, I couldn't stop rolling and was pushed all the way to the edge of the shattered floor.
With no time to even scream, I began plummeting into the collapsed space below.
'I'm gonna die!'
Beneath the window of my room was the flower bed Mother had made.
She'd covered everything except the spots where flowers bloomed with stones to keep the weeds at bay.
Falling onto that from the second floor—no way my limbs would come out intact.
The moment I squeezed my eyes shut, I felt a hand wrap around my arm.
A pain like my shoulder was about to dislocate jolted through me, but it finally stopped my fall.
The recoil made my body swing side to side, crashing into the wall debris.
"Can you climb up?"
The one barely holding onto my arm was the prince.
It was an eerily powerful grip.
But he was still just a child, unable to bear my weight fully, and his body was slowly being dragged toward the collapsed floor.
One moment he'd been striking such a heroic pose...
What a good kid, after all. Even knowing the ceiling was collapsing from the fire, he held on tight to my hand without letting go.
Our eyes met briefly in midair.
"Let... go..."
"If you're gonna say something stupid like..."
"...Don't you dare! I'll get someone else here right away. Got it? No matter what! Just hold on!"
The prince stared at me, speechless, looking a bit bewildered.
'I'm not dying here!'
I reached out with my free hand and grabbed a jutting piece of wood from the floor.
Thorns dug into my palm, but compared to the agony in my shoulder, it was nothing.
I had to climb up somehow.
Even though I'd said others would come rescue us, with the monster's sudden attack, everyone was probably in chaos.
I poured every ounce of strength into it, my nails nearly ripping off. In my past life, I could've pulled myself up no problem.
"Miss!"
Betty's booming voice rang out from below.
She'd finally spotted me.
Swish.
The monster, now too exhausted to even thrash, trembled its tail faintly as its body twitched.
At the same moment, the stone wall fragment lodged in its claws plummeted to the floor.
People screamed and scattered to avoid it. Betty seemed desperate to reach me, but the monster blocked her way.
'Am I really going to die like this?'
The prince looked like he was at his limit too.
He gripped my hand desperately, but it kept slipping.
Still, he never let go.
His eyes blazed fiercely amid the flames.
Near the Takiten Barony lay a narrow canyon.
It was the shortest route from Leopoldt's estate to the barony, but due to frequent monster appearances, access was normally forbidden—a treacherous path.
A massive tremor shook the area, accompanied by the sound of trees and rocks being crushed with a sickening crunch.
Sharp ice shards erupted from the ground, piercing the heart of a massive beast resembling a wild ox.
At the same time, they impaled the hand of the heretic riding on its back.
The heretic groaned as he tumbled from the skewered, collapsing monster and hit the ground.
"Ugh, you monster..."
The man groaned faintly upon confirming his fleeing comrades had met the same fate. Leopoldt approached him slowly.
How many of his kin had died by Leopoldt's hand?
Resentment burned deep, but an even greater terror gripped his body.
Unconsciously, the heretic pushed back with his feet, retreating bit by bit.
Leopoldt cornered him against the lifeless monster's corpse, pinning him with nowhere left to go, then looked down.
"K-Kill me here!"
His shout was a final bluff to overcome the fear.
"I've heard all about that devil of a duke! I'd rather die like a warrior here than by his hand!"
"You think you have a choice...?"
"Aaaagh!"
The heretic lost all composure, rolling on the bare ground in agony as the ice blade inside his wound expanded.
"Take some of the captured ones to the barony. The rest of you, finish off the remaining monsters here with me, then move out."
"Understood."
Leopoldt nodded slightly, and two knights approached.
They dragged away the man still writhing and screaming for death at their feet.
"Looks like the young miss's birthday has come and gone like this."
With the rescue complete, he finally had some breathing room.
Walter, drawing near, muttered while fiddling with the fresh cut on his cheek.
Leopoldt instinctively glanced up at the sky, but the dense canopy of the canyon blocked even the moonlight, making it hard to gauge the time.
She must have received the gift by now.
The sapphire resembled Lucy's eyes.
She was still a stranger he hadn't even heard call him "Daddy" properly, but those eyes were just like her mother's.
The sapphire would suit Mariella quite well too.
"Well, with the estate so bustling, everyone must have taken good care of her. The young miss is loved by so many people anyway."
Leopoldt replied lowly to Walter's words, which he'd half-ignored.
"The main house already knows we brought His Highness the First Prince with us."
"Pardon? But we came out secretly on His Majesty's orders—how would the main house know?"
Leopoldt briefly recalled the emperor's gaunt face, his cheekbones protruding sharply.
'Take care of Florian.'
Even sputtering just those words, he'd coughed harshly several times, a wretched sight.
Once, the two had been the empire's heir and the North's ducal successor, respectively—close due to their similar positions.
The emperor, back in his crown prince days, had been gentle yet lively.
A friend whose perfect life had never known a single wrinkle.
And now that emperor lay lifeless, vitality drained, barely clinging to breath like a corpse...
Leopoldt's brow furrowed briefly before he gave the answer.
"The empress must have sent word."
The emperor was little more than a breathing shell; the palace and court politics had long been seized by the empress and her father, Duke Petherzen.
In an empire that favored primogeniture, Florian—born not to the empress but another woman—had claimed the first prince's position.
The power-hungry father and daughter wouldn't accept that quietly.
Wasn't it the same reason Leopoldt's brother Dominique eyed his position so greedily?
Not even believing his disinterest in the ducal succession.
"As expected, the work of Young Duke Dominique? He's interfered with your plans several times before—is he still at it?"
"Not certain."
"If not him, then who would sabotage you?"
"There's the old man."
"Surely His Grace the Duke wouldn't go that far..."
As Walter trailed off uneasily, Leopoldt chuckled dryly.
"Who knows. He's the one who got my wife killed, after all."
The words carried a laugh, but an unmistakable deep hatred seeped through.
As Walter struggled for a response, hurried footsteps approached, someone chanting "Captain!" repeatedly.
"Young Master Dietrich has arrived, Captain!"
At the uninvited arrival of his young son, Leopoldt's face hardened.
In the distance, he saw his son—wearing only a coat over his pajamas—and the nanny hurrying toward them.
After hearing the nanny's frantic explanation, Leopoldt fell silent for a moment before asking curtly,
"...And Mariella?"
"The young miss said she's protecting His Highness the First Prince and is still at the estate..."
Amid the acrid smell of torches, Leopoldt felt a strange sense of déjà vu.