Chapter 174
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 174
“If I succeed, both Tulia and I will become ordinary people.”
Lailan spoke bravely, wiping the corners of her eyes with the back of her hand.
“Since I’ll be laying down a duty passed through generations, I’ll return lacking in ways I’m not now. My beauty, my personality… quite a lot of it.”
Lailan, who had been giggling like a child, let her voice trail off slightly.
“Or perhaps… my life.”
Life.
Aster shook his head frantically.
“No. Not that.”
“…”
“Anything but that last one, Lailan. Please.”
“…”
“I don’t care what you lose. I don’t care what you look like or what your personality becomes. Just stay alive and stay by my side, Lailan. I’m begging you.”
After a long silence, Lailan smiled as fresh as a flower swaying in a spring breeze.
“I want that, too.”
They had arrived at Tulia’s room without realizing it. They stood in silence, gazing at their youngest daughter asleep in her small bed.
Looking down at that tiny, beautiful child, Aster’s heart ached as if a thousand needles were piercing it at once. It was an unbearable agony.
Lailan gently brushed back a strand of pink hair that looked exactly like her own and whispered.
“No matter what happens, I will save Tulia.”
Her words carried a grim resolve, implying that she didn’t care if she died in the process.
The weight of it made Aster feel as if he were suffocating. It felt as though someone were tightening a grip around his throat.
“Lailan.”
Don’t do it. Why would you say that? Aren’t you thinking of me?
As if she had anticipated all his questions, the woman who had looked like a forest nymph from the moment he first saw her gave a faint smile.
“She’s our youngest daughter. Our little girl…”
“…”
It was then he realized.
Though she displayed the dignity and ferocity of a successor to the Golden Throne, she, too, was trembling with fear. She was suffering from the realization that this might truly be the end.
Ultimately, Aster turned his back to her.
He couldn’t bear the tears that were beginning to fall.
*
“Is it this person?”
“It is an honor to meet you, Marquis Aster Frezier.”
The one who came to take her and Tulia away shortly after was a priest. The figure was shrouded in a robe, but since Lailan had said she was a priest, Aster assumed it was true.
“Remove the hood.”
The priest hesitated for a moment, but the Marquis’s aura was menacing. The priest immediately revealed their face and bowed.
In that moment, Aster memorized the priest’s face as if it were burned into his retinas.
The priest was young, quite tall, and possessed a face that anyone would call handsome.
For a moment, Aster was consumed by jealousy. He had been young and petty back then.
Perhaps she had sensed it.
“Ack!”
She suddenly grabbed the priest by the crown of the head and ripped out a handful of hair.
The priest, whose hair had been torn out by the roots, collapsed while clutching their head.
She tossed the hair onto the floor and looked at Aster with a smile.
“Would I be able to tear the hair out of a man I loved like this?”
“…”
“You know the answer, Aster.”
So there’s no need to be jealous.
The only man I love is you.
In her own way, with her usual personality, she was reassuring him.
“…I’m sorry.”
At the Marquis’s hesitant apology, her smile deepened.
The tears shimmering in her eyes finally gathered into droplets and rolled down her cheeks.
“I gave you my whole heart.”
“I did the same.”
“You should have kept a little bit for yourself.”
“…Why?”
She smiled as she pulled the sleeping Tulia into a tight embrace. No, she was crying and smiling at the same time.
“Because we have our princess.”
“…”
“If—just in case—I fail to save our daughter…”
“…”
“You have to be the one to make her happy.”
Aster bit his lip. She was a woman stronger than anyone in the world. Stronger even than him, a man called the demon of the battlefield.
In the end, she never returned.
The Hania woman who barely managed to bring Tulia back to the castle was severely wounded and breathed her last before she could even receive treatment.
The Hania tribe, who guarded the Throne under the protection of the World Tree.
That race, which resembled fairies, vanished completely after that day.
*
Right.
That priest back then definitely had a pitch-black Star Mark on his head.
Exactly on the crown of the head where she had ripped out the hair.
It was so small that it could only be seen by looking closely, just as he was doing now.
Why did that man and this man have the same mark on their heads?
“Grand Duke, Marquis.”
In the meantime, the subordinates who had moved quickly reported back.
“We checked the heads of the other heretics. They all have the same Star Mark in the exact same spot.”
“…A bizarre mark. Is it their own unique symbol?”
Grand Duke Asis muttered, staring at Aster’s back.
Aster remained standing as if frozen, staring down at the crown of the man’s head.
Yes. He was thinking of something else.
In the past, he thought she had simply resolved his jealousy in her own characteristic way.
But now, perhaps…
‘Did she rip that part out on purpose to show me?’
But why?
The more he retraced his steps, the stranger it felt.
Back then, he had simply thought the man was a member of the Hania tribe.
Why did he have the same mark hidden on his head as this group of heretics?
“Father.”
“…?”
Grand Duke Asis dug at his ear.
“It seems I’m finally going deaf. What did that brat just blurt out?”
The subordinate standing next to him spoke up awkwardly.
“Grand Duke, sir. Um, my apologies, but he said ‘Fa’—”
“Father.”
Grand Duke Asis shifted his gaze to Aster as if he were looking at something grotesque.
However, Marquis Aster, who had bewildered the Grand Duke with the unprecedentedly respectful title of ‘Father,’ was entirely focused on the heretic’s head.
“What do you think about modifying the plan slightly?”
“What? How do you want to modify it?”
“I have a feeling it would be best to keep this a secret from the Temple for the time being.”
“A feeling?”
“Yes. Something is strange.”
“Is this because of Lailan Frezier?”
“…”
Marquis Aster fell silent.
It had been a long time since he had heard that name from someone else’s lips. The name of his deceased wife made his heart ache.
After watching his son for a moment, Grand Duke Asis changed the subject.
“It will be difficult to keep this a secret only from the Temple. No matter how much we use secret official documents for the Imperial Palace, there are many priests there.”
“Yes. Since Crown Prince Ferdinand is practically a minor god to the priests.”
A boy born with the divine power that Empress Olivia had gathered like a madwoman.
Because of that, all the priests worshipped and looked up to the Crown Prince.
This was the reason why Empress Carmi, though she might secretly poison Ferdinand, could never openly plot against him.
“If we don’t inform both the Palace and the Temple, the protection of the entire Empire will be weakened. Not to mention the rest of the continent.”
Of course, strictly speaking, they were nobles of the Brillant Empire, so they didn’t need to care so much about other kingdoms.
However, it was a matter that could lead to great criticism later and tarnish the family’s reputation.
In short, they were holding a ticking time bomb.
Naturally, Marquis Aster was well aware of this logic.
“Even so, do you truly wish to keep it a secret?”
“I will find a way.”
“The deadline?”
Marquis Aster furrowed his brow and answered after some thought.
“I believe I’ll need a week.”
“I can give you up to ten days, so find a way within that time.”
“Yes, Father.”
“Stop calling me ‘Father.’ It’s creepy.”
“Yes, Father.”
“Why, you…!”
Grand Duke Asis turned around with a huff, and the Marquis and the subordinates followed.
“For now, we must return to the castle.”
After exiting the incredibly complex secret passage and traveling for a full hour by carriage, they returned to Frezier Castle.
However, as soon as they arrived, they were greeted by a single letter sent by Tulia.
[Sophia got caught badmouthing the Crown Prince, so it looks like her engagement is going to be annulled.
But for some reason, the Crown Prince has gone mad and says he wants to marry me instead.
I would appreciate it if you could come to the Imperial Capital and resolve this matter amicably.
- From Tulia, who loves her grandfather and father infinitely.]
Ten minutes later.
Twenty carriages charged out of the Grand Duke’s castle and began racing toward the Imperial Capital.