Chapter 254
Chapter 254
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 254
Chapter Title: Two Princesses
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Time flies like an arrow.
During that flowing time, Krash focused on the power of the White Dragon King dwelling within him.
At first, Crimson Garden had scolded Krash, asking what he was thinking trying to absorb a Dragon King's power.
But as time passed, she eventually let out a sigh.
And helped Krash absorb the White Dragon King's power.
"After absorbing the World Erosion's power, that's a bit late to worry about now."
Krash let out a short chuckle, as if to say it was pointless to worry at this stage.
In response, Crimson Garden stomped on his head repeatedly.
The world after protecting it from destruction.
Could Krash truly live there as himself?
His body harbored countless curses, the power of World Erosion, and now the Dragon King's power.
On top of that, Crimson Garden's immortality, once dreamed of by other Dragon Kings.
With all that inside him, Krash might one day become an object of fear and avoidance.
Because the moment they tolerate something different, they fear the danger it might bring.
Humans endlessly deny and erase the different.
To ensure only they exist fully in this world.
"But there's a guy like me."
He pointed to himself, associating with Crimson Garden and Evel Asq.
Crimson Garden sighed even more deeply.
Krash didn't know everything about Crimson Garden's life.
He only knew her end: losing all her kind to Arthur, melting eternally in lava.
So Krash just smiled faintly, mulling over her words.
"You know I have no intention of going back, and it's far too late anyway."
"That's why I'm living like this."
To see the world beyond.
Krash was giving his all to today.
Crimson Garden knew that, so she stopped her scolding there.
"I'm all for it."
To shatter Ixion's plans, Krash absolutely needed to fully absorb the Dragon King's power.
So he welcomed Crimson Garden's words.
That was when Krash moved to enter secluded training.
A familiar hair color caught his eye ahead.
Sea-blue locks.
A color Krash used to hate most.
But now, thanks to someone else, it was okay.
"Cecily."
When Krash called her name, she looked up.
"What brings you all the way to the Martial Hall?"
This was the Martial Hall building.
She had reason to visit someone specific, but Krash teased anyway.
Hearing the question, Cecily let out a light laugh.
"Who else would I come to see but my fiancé?"
Krash reacted with stunned disbelief.
Cecily, having anticipated it, shrugged.
"What can I do? The imperial family pushed it through on their own. It's officially approved by the Emperor himself, so even I can't do anything about it."
Cecily fiddled with her hair, looking a bit sorry.
As she said, this was pure unavoidable force from power.
No matter how capable Krash was, he couldn't take on the Empire and Valheim at once.
The forced engagement would have to go through somehow.
Cecily was just as blindsided as Krash.
"I didn't expect things to turn out like this. Sorry."
Since Krash was the culprit, he apologized to the dragged-in Cecily.
Her eyes widened round.
Then she burst into giggles.
"You actually feel responsible for something like this?"
"I did cause it."
Cecily made a soft humming sound.
She stepped closer, curving her eyes playfully.
"So, you'll take responsibility for me too?"
"...Do you even need someone like me taking responsibility for a girl who lives just fine on her own?"
"My situation's like this. If the engagement breaks, I'll just get a ton of grief from the Empire."
Cecily placed a hand near her eye, pretending to cry pitifully.
A girl with no intention of claiming a seat in the Empire, who'd withdrawn from the Emperor race.
What was she saying?
"...So you're saying you'll marry me?"
Hearing that, Cecily puffed out her chest proudly.
"Looks-wise, I'm pretty cute, right? And I'm smart, so I'll handle things well at home. Wouldn't I be the best to have around?"
What kind of self-pitch was that?
Krash stared at her in bewilderment.
Cecily cleared her throat awkwardly, a bit embarrassed.
"Don't give me that look. I just think living with you would be pretty fun, that's all."
Cecily wrapped her arms around herself, her eyes tinged with bitterness.
"I don't have a place in the Empire."
Cecily loved the Empire.
But the Empire never gave her a place.
Her frail body from birth and being the youngest royal always weighed her down.
With her brains, she could overcome those hurdles.
But she knew doing so would fracture the Empire.
"Wouldn't leaving the Empire be better than living like this?"
The Saintess, Astraia, too.
The Flame Emperor, Aslan, too.
Even his fiancée Bianca.
All the people around him seemed to be abandoning their homes.
'Why are they all half-baked in life?'
Feeling like a protector gathering the homeless, Krash sighed.
"Tone down the acting."
"Was it obvious?"
Cecily wasn't the type to care about not having a place in the Empire.
So Krash saw through her lie immediately.
By then, Cecily had closed in right under his nose.
A citrus scent tickled his nostrils from her closeness.
With her usual mischievous smile, Cecily poked his chest with her index finger.
"But know that not everything I just said was a joke."
Living with Krash wouldn't be bad.
That much was sincere.
"Snagging the spot next to you might be fun, but I don't really care—just give me a place to stay."
She had no designs on the fiancée spot beside him, Cecily added, stepping back.
Watching her, Krash let out a short sigh.
There'd been Astraia's issue recently, and he bore responsibility for Cecily's too.
"...I won't just abandon you."
Krash had no thought of leaving her be.
Things had rolled this far; he'd find a solution eventually.
'Was Arthur feeling the same?'
He vaguely understood why Arthur had three women.
The problem was that choice seemed utterly wrong to Krash.
'Maybe the ones by my side.'
To Arthur's eyes, they might have been the most broken ones.
'Birds of a feather flock together, huh.'
As Krash chuckled dryly at his own situation.
Clack—
Another set of footsteps echoed from the corridor's end.
Krash and Cecily's heads turned there simultaneously.
What appeared was more sea-blue hair, like Cecily's.
But seeing it, Krash's eyes twisted in displeasure.
"Sigrin."
The moment he said her name, her steps halted abruptly.
Her usually haughty face looked terribly worn today.
Recent insomnia had left her hollow-eyed, barely sleeping, her skin dry and rough.
Yet her emanating aura was fiercer than ever.
Krash's eyes widened slightly.
'This girl.'
During her sleepless nights.
Sigrin had thrown herself into training like an escape.
Her white dragon aura had grown much stronger.
'She's deliberately cracking the egg.'
Krash had only stolen the Emperor's egg.
The White Dragon King's egg still remained in Sigrin's body.
She was intentionally breaking it to draw out the power inside.
A suicidal act that could hasten her white stone disease.
It also meant she was that desperate.
No matter her efforts, the world shunned her.
Constantly robbed of what was hers, anxiety gripped Sigrin, leading her to touch the White Dragon King's power.
Unaware it was now an empty shell swallowed by Krash.
"... ."
Raising her head, Sigrin looked at Krash.
Her hollow eyes slowly shifted to Cecily.
Seeing them together, conviction filled her gaze, anger slowly rising.
"You... scum."
Her grinding teeth and boiling eyes raged with fury.
Krash instantly grasped the source of her anger.
The news of his engagement to Cecily.
Sigrin had heard it too.
Upon hearing, fury surged in her eyes.
The moment Krash wed Cecily.
He'd become part of the imperial family.
His children could even claim imperial succession.
Rumors said the recently recovered Emperor had his eye on it.
Perhaps that's why.
To Sigrin's eyes now, Krash seemed a brazen thief stealing not just hers, but Arthur's too.
"This... all of this is Lord Arthur's...!"
"Sister?"
About to shout, Sigrin snapped to at Cecily's voice.
Blinded by insomnia and fatigue, she realized she'd revealed too much.
"Ugh."
Sigrin swallowed a groan, stepping back.
Her mental state was so off, she hadn't even realized coming here.
Since the first student unit tournament, her condition had worsened steadily.
She knew it, but awareness didn't fix it.
"Lady Sigrin."
Krash called her then.
As she flinched and looked up, he smiled kindly.
A natural smile as if he had no regression memories, complicating her mind further.
"You look exhausted. How about returning to your room for some rest?"
"...Rest?"
Sigrin murmured his words blankly.
Rest.
Had anyone ever told her to rest in her life?
Sigrin, who'd always pushed upward her whole life, had never heard it.
Deep in her heart.
A deeply unpleasant emotion began to rear its head.
As mixed feelings spread through her body, her fingertips and toes tingled.
Krash's simple suggestion to rest plunged her mood to rock bottom.
It felt like he was saying she was unnecessary in this world.
"...Fuck."
A curse slipped from Sigrin's lips, who always spoke elegantly.