Chapter 270
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 270
Chapter Title: 75. More Proudly Than Anyone (3)
When the crown prince first awoke, Adelia Bayern felt nothing but joy.
But once that joy faded, a sharp pain soon pierced her heart.
"Could you wake Sir Kals over there? He looks like he skipped meals and hasn't slept properly."
The crown prince's face was filled with concern as he spoke, unable to bear the sight of the steadfast Sir Kals kneeling.
"I'm scared he'll collapse."
At those words, Adelia Bayern froze, her tears even stopping.
It was the first time.
The first time such a word had escaped his lips: scared.
He had never uttered anything like it, not even on the brink of Winter Castle's fall before the innumerable orc horde, nor when he rode out with iron resolve to face the Warlord.
Everyone knew that fact.
"...Why?"
Only the crown prince himself had been unaware.
Adelia Bayern couldn't bring herself to tell him outright that she never imagined the word "scared" would come from his mouth.
To her, that would be profound irreverence.
As she kept silent, the crown prince's face paled upon hearing news of the Winter Castle Lord.
That expression on his face was all too familiar to her.
It was exactly like the face he made in the dead of night, groaning alone in secret agony.
That, too, was the first time.
The first time he had shown such a fragile expression while awake.
The way he had pulled her into a tight embrace, painful as it was, was also unlike him.
For some reason, the crown prince seemed smaller today.
Not just because of his gaunt face and emaciated body.
His expressions shifted endlessly in mere moments, unlike his usual self, and the unfiltered worry and anxiety pouring from him made him appear diminished.
That unease kept Adelia Bayern from even thinking of leaving his side.
As she stayed by him, she drifted off to sleep.
Voices of conversation reached her ears.
Adelia Bayern kept her eyes closed, gauging the presence of the visitor who had come in the dead of night.
A uniquely clear and pure aura lingered at the door.
It wasn't hard to guess its owner.
Arwen Kirguyen—who else could possess such a pristine energy?
Adelia Bayern squeezed her eyes shut tighter.
Right now, Arwen Kirguyen was the last person she wanted to face.
Just a few days ago, she had barricaded herself in this room and, when the other woman slipped in unnoticed during the night, she had lashed out, demanding what nerve she had to show up.
To her barrage of curses and harsh words, Lady Arwen had only said she would soon depart for the fortress.
In truth, she had known from the start. When everyone hesitated, it was Arwen who stepped up and shouldered the heavy burden.
Unable to bear her own failure to protect the one she served, hating herself for not even fulfilling his final request, she had vented her senseless resentment on the innocent woman.
If only she had offered a single word of defense against that wayward fury, the guilt might have eased a little.
But the steadfast knight endured it all in silence.
That made her feel even more ashamed, even more sorry.
She loathed her foolish, selfish self.
At that moment, a firm grip tightened around her hand.
It was the crown prince.
"It's all my fault."
His voice, insisting it wasn't her fault, brimmed with regret and guilt.
It was the weakest, most powerless tone Adelia Bayern had ever heard from him.
"I did something unforgivable to everyone."
Yet at the same time, it was firmer than ever before.
Adelia Bayern could no longer hold back and cracked her eyes open just a sliver.
Not far away, close enough to touch if she reached out, there he was: the crown prince.
The twenty-two-year-old crown prince gazing at some distant place with an unprecedentedly resolute gaze.
**
Not long after Adelia Bayern awoke again, Young Lord Ilai arrived.
She blocked him as he reeked of alcohol and tried to embrace the barely recovered crown prince.
She had only told him to wash up and change his clothes lest he harm His Highness, but Young Lord Ilai acted as if he'd suffered a grave shock.
Yet he seemed aware of his own state, for he soon returned impeccably groomed.
"I said don't come!"
"Why? I just wanted to hug you because I missed you!"
His comical clinging made Adelia Bayern laugh despite herself.
"Yes, that's how you should smile."
Even as he bantered with Young Lord Ilai, the crown prince's warm words, not missing her expression, made her keep smiling.
"That's too biased. Why not me?"
Young Lord Ilai pouted upon seeing it.
"It's my whim."
The crown prince's confident demeanor as he said it harkened back to his old self.
For once, she was grateful for Young Lord Ilai's attitude, which she had sometimes found overly irreverent and brash.
"I'm off."
After grumbling for a while, Young Lord Ilai rose.
"Don't grab me."
"I won't."
"I'm really going."
"Go."
Perhaps miffed at leaving without a single kind word, he huffed and stormed out, looking a bit pitiful.
"Don't ever die, Bernard."
That was when the crown prince spoke.
Young Lord Ilai turned back from the doorway, frozen in place.
"Until House Ilai rises as the continent's greatest knightly house, I won't die even if you kill me."
"Such greed. Planning to live forever?"
Young Lord Ilai blinked blankly before scowling fiercely.
"Just watch! Soon the whole world will call House Ilai the greatest!"
The crown prince replied indifferently, Yeah, sure.
And repeated his plea not to die.
"Don't clash swords with blue-skinned foes and mutually pierce each other's hearts to die pointlessly."
Young Lord Ilai's expression turned peculiar at the oddly specific description.
"Is that a curse? Or concern?"
"Don't let your heart be pierced and die."
No matter the young lord's question, the crown prince repeated the same words.
Don't let your heart be pierced and die.
"I have no plans to die that way, so spare your worry—if it really is worry."
Young Lord Ilai departed, still looking uneasy and muttering.
"Adelia."
"Yes, Your Highness."
"You too, don't die."
Adelia Bayern nodded firmly at the earnest concern in his words.
In her heart, she vowed never to leave him alone.
"Don't get stabbed in the arms, legs, chest, and waist, bleed out, writhe in agony crying all day, and die without even closing your eyes."
"...I won't get stabbed in the arms, legs, chest, and waist, bleed out, writhe in agony crying all day, and die without closing my eyes."
"Good. Never die like that."
The example was excessively detailed, but she didn't argue.
Refusing an order once was enough.
"This feels off. Who wiped snot and tears all over me? I look a mess."
The crown prince said it playfully.
Remembering too late that she hadn't properly tended to him in the chaos, Adelia Bayern prepared fresh clothes as usual.
But as she went to change his clothes, she froze.
"What?"
He asked what the problem was, seeing her suddenly stiffen, but she couldn't answer.
No, she couldn't possibly say it.
She couldn't tell him his funeral was planned for three days later and the clothes he wore were his burial shroud.
"I said I hate white clothes, so what's this?"
"I'll help you change!"
At his words, Adelia hurriedly stripped off his clothes.
Lest he realize the nature of what he wore.
In a frantic rush.
**
That was the start.
From then on, the crown prince told everyone he met not to die, with bizarrely detailed examples.
"Don't lose your limbs, lie amid corpses on the floor, and die pathetically. Sir Kals."
"...Yes, Your Highness."
"Absolutely."
"Yes. I absolutely won't die like that."
People always looked deeply uncomfortable but nodded before his face full of pure goodwill.
Two days later, as the Winter Castle Lord and the king neared the royal capital, Adelia suddenly realized something astonishing.
In those two days since regaining his senses, the crown prince hadn't once complained of boredom or expressed a desire to go out.
He hadn't even asked where his sword was—the first thing he'd usually seek.
He simply smiled and chatted with visitors.
For someone who could never sit still, it was impossible.
She even thought the true miracle wasn't his return from death, but this serene demeanor.
Sir Kals Yulihi, catching her eye by chance, quietly shook his head.
His gaze and expression seemed to say he understood her feelings but urged her not to prod and disturb the one finally resting quietly.
So she forcibly pushed down the question in her mind.
Good is good. She repeated to herself.
That evening, those who had left the capital returned.
Clank, clank.
Heavy footsteps burst the door open.
It was the Winter Castle Lord.
Dust still on his shoulders and hair, he just stood in the doorway, staring at the crown prince.
No, glaring.
The king appeared late.
Seeing his eldest son lying in bed, staring blankly, the king staggered.
"Sir Schrumhilde. Am I seeing things?"
"No, Your Majesty."
"Then that boy sitting there is truly my son?"
"Indeed, Your Majesty."
The king approached and caressed the crown prince's face.
"Are you truly Ian?"
Instead of answering, the crown prince offered a gentle smile.
A warm smile he had never shown his father.
The king opened and closed his mouth several times. Then he embraced his eldest son.
Cautiously, as if he might break.
The crown prince, in his father's arms, wiggled his hand.
As if wanting to reach out and hug back, but it seemed too strenuous.
After holding him a long while, the king gently released him.
"Your Majesty. A man born to keep one word doesn't wish to break it, but now I must."
The Winter Castle Lord then spoke.
His tone was exceedingly deferential, yet chillingly cold.
"The title of Northern Duke I returned seems essential right now."
"I never revoked the title I bestowed upon you."
"I am still the duke."
With a cold smile that it was fortunate, the Winter Castle Lord clanked into the room in his armor.
"If I were to reprimand a reckless fool here who doesn't know his place or value his life, would Your Majesty call it insolence?"
"In granting you the Northern Duke's position, I promised not to punish you unless for treason. Even without that, how could I pettily invoke royal law when a maternal cousin rebukes his younger brother's faults?"
The crown prince, sensing the ominous tension late, tried to protest, but no one listened.
"Then, if I may."
The Winter Castle Lord stood right before the crown prince.
And unleashed a torrent of savage words.
Words far too irreverent for a crown prince, yet the blunt truths everyone wanted to say but couldn't.
Even Adelia Bayern, watching, found herself unconsciously rooting for him—the lord was unrelenting.
"Uh, uh..."
The crown prince, never expecting such terrifying words from the Winter Castle Lord, only uttered dazed sounds.
"Hoo."
After pouring out his heart for a long time, the Winter Castle Lord breathed heavily.
His glaring eyes were icy cold.
But the freezing chill didn't linger.
Warmth soon filled the lord's eyes.
"...So."
With those warm eyes, the Winter Castle Lord suddenly pulled the crown prince into a fierce embrace.
"Don't ever act so selfishly again."
The crown prince made no reply.
"It's fortunate you're back, Your Highness."
He merely sat there blankly, still dazed.