Chapter 63
Chapter 63
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 63
Chapter Title: Crying Prince
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Four years ago, Plenus Castle in the North.
“Your Highness, how could you come without any notice...”
“Out of my way.”
“No, sir. Prince Iura is in the middle of work.”
“I said move!”
Rubid shoved aside the retainers blocking him and kicked open the door to the study. The moment the door flew open, his eyes met Iura’s, who was seated at the desk. Iura didn’t seem startled at all by the sudden intrusion, as if he had already guessed what was happening from the noise.
“Iura!”
“Who gave you permission?”
“What?”
“I don’t recall summoning you.”
It was almost a break-in, yet Iura cut him off coldly without even asking why. Rubid glared at his infuriatingly impassive brother. He felt a surge of anger at the thought that he wasn’t even being treated like a person, let alone a younger brother. But Iura remained utterly expressionless.
“Get out.”
“Brother!”
Rubid couldn’t hold back and yelled. He didn’t want to face Iura any longer than necessary. Yet he had come here because there was something he needed to confirm.
“Damn it, just answer one thing.”
Rubid spat out a curse and asked his brother, who was looking at him without a hint of emotion.
“Did Father die because of the Emperor?”
“Where did you hear that?”
“...Is it true?”
Rubid asked again, his energy draining from his face. But Iura’s demeanor didn’t change. Still rigid, still icy.
“I asked where you heard it.”
“I asked first! Is it true?!”
As Rubid shouted, Iura closed the document he had been reviewing. Then he stared at Rubid in silence. Rubid’s gaze trembled faintly in that silence.
“It’s true.”
Rubid was convinced by Iura’s attitude. Otherwise, he would have denied it or demanded to know the source. He wouldn’t have stayed silent like that. With certainty dawning, fury rose in Rubid’s eyes.
“Brother, you knew and...”
He couldn’t believe it. His brother knew the Emperor had sent their father to a hopeless battlefield, knew that was why he died, and yet served the Emperor like a dog without a care. Rubid trembled with profound betrayal. But Iura remained indifferent.
“Pretend you don’t know.”
“What?”
“If you value your life, pretend you don’t know.”
“You call that...!”
“Rubid Plenus.”
Rubid flinched involuntarily at Iura’s heavy voice as he was about to shout. Iura glared at him and spat out the words.
“If you don’t want to die, shut up.”
Iura’s face was so ferocious it was hard to believe. It was the first time. The first time Iura had ever shown anger directly at him. Having been ignored all this time, Rubid was suddenly terrified by this unfamiliar threat from his brother. His mind went blank with fear, but he forced himself to move his lips.
“B-But Father...”
“Our father failed.”
“What...?”
“He died from lack of ability. That’s all. Don’t blame the Emperor for it.”
Rubid’s mind went blank again at his brother’s words. It had been three years since their father’s death, and the sudden change in his brother had made him keep his distance. He had turned his back too, thinking he didn’t need someone like you. But deep down, he had still trusted him. He had thought of him as family, after all. Seeing him now defend the Emperor by belittling their father’s death felt like the ground was crumbling beneath him. As he stared, speechless, Iura drove the nail in.
“So don’t run your mouth recklessly. Unless you want to end up like Father.”
In that moment, Rubid’s breath caught in his throat. It wasn’t just a feeling—he literally couldn’t breathe.
“Urk...”
Rubid turned pale and staggered back. Pushed to his limit, a curse-like obsession finally bloomed in his mind. Iura’s words, “If you don’t want to die,” were a conditional warning at best, but to Rubid, trapped in his obsession, they sounded like a death threat. In the end, fear overtook him, and he lost his reason.
“N-No...”
He would die. He was going to die. Just like Iura said, he would die. His head would be chopped off. He didn’t want to die. He didn’t want his neck severed. He didn’t want to stand before the guillotine. He didn’t want to be cut!
“G-Get away...!”
“Rubid.”
When Iura called his name as his state changed, it backfired. Rubid turned ashen and backed away. He stumbled and collapsed but kept pushing himself backward with his legs, fleeing. The proud prince lost all dignity, scrambling to the corner like a wild animal dragged out. Then he hit his head on a decorative sword hanging on the study wall.
“Ugh, aaah...!”
The moment he saw the sharp blade, Rubid’s eyes turned blue. He felt like he was going to die. Like his head would fall off any second. Unable to bear the pressure, Rubid grabbed the sword without thinking. In his deranged state, he swung it wildly, destroying everything around him.
. . . When he came to, Rubid was tied to a bed.
“Are you awake, Your Highness?”
A man was looking down at him with concern. A refined man with a kind face—Count Lubel.
As Rubid stared blankly, the count said,
“It’s been six days.”
“Six days...?”
“Don’t you remember? You collapsed in Prince Iura’s study.”
Rubid blinked slowly and finally came to his senses. He tried to sit up abruptly but groaned and fell back.
“Ugh...”
“Don’t move. You’re badly injured.”
The count untied Rubid’s bound wrists as he spoke.
“Prince Iura has placed you under house arrest.”
“Damn it, what right does that bastard have...”
“Do you really not remember?”
When the count asked again, Rubid shot him an irritated look. Lowering his voice, the count informed him.
“You swung a sword at Prince Iura.”
“I...?”
Rubid looked at the count in shock. The count gave a wry smile at his innocent expression.
“It seems I spoke out of turn. I never imagined this would happen...”
As the count spoke with eyes full of worry, Rubid hesitated like a scolded child and averted his gaze.
“...Forget it. If it weren’t for you, I’d never have known.”
As he said himself, without the count, Rubid would have remained in the dark forever. About the Emperor’s cruelty, about the secret of their father’s death, and about his brother. The one who had whispered the truth to Prince Rubid was none other than this man, Count Cardo Lubel. Two years ago, he had entered Plenus Castle on the recommendation of the Western Duke. Iura had immediately made him the prince’s attendant and tutor, due to his unusual scholarly background unfit for nobility. Count Cardo Lubel was one of many attendants serving Rubid. But Rubid kept him closer than the others. It was his own calculation that an outsider was better than the Northerners loyal to Iura to the bone. Indeed, unlike the other attendants, Count Lubel didn’t pester Rubid. He was straightforward without awkward prying, free of pretense, and never brought up Iura’s name at every turn. And he revealed secrets hidden from the prince alone. Thanks to him, the prince, dragged unprepared into the square of truth, was struggling to endure the harsh reality.
“This.”
Rubid, sitting dazed, touched his bandaged arm and said,
“Did Iura do this?”
“It was an unavoidable situation.”
Rubid gritted his teeth at the count’s clumsy defense. Then he irritably unwound the bandage.
“Your Highness!”
The count tried to stop him in alarm, but the boy brushed him off and tore it away. He thrust the wound—clearly sliced by a blade, throbbing unbearably—toward the count.
“Unavoidable? This?”
Rubid demanded, his eyes bloodshot. He was convinced Iura had stabbed him with a sword. Of course he had. Of course. He hates me, he wants to kill me!
“That bastard has no family. He’d do that to his parents, let alone a brother...”
Rubid ranted furiously but bit his lip as if wounded by his own words. The count silently watched the boy who only knew how to lash out, then rebandaged the wound. With a shadowed face, he reported,
“Prince Iura’s judgment is not wrong.”
“What?”
“The world doesn’t care for the circumstances of the weak or the victor. To speak boldly, the late Northern Duke’s case was the same.”
“You dare...!”
“What if Prince Iura had defied His Imperial Majesty over that matter?”
The count asked calmly, facing the prince’s rage. Rubid was speechless at the obvious answer, and the count continued with a firm expression.
“The strong can do anything, but the weak cannot. Prince Iura is certainly strong, but not before His Imperial Majesty. That’s why he acts like the weak.”
Like the weak. That meant prostrating before his father’s enemy and submitting. Becoming the Emperor’s loyal hound in place of his father, who died miserably. Not even harboring resentment, let alone seeking revenge.
“That’s the way of the world. Everyone lives that way, endures that way.”
It was as Lubel said. His father had been weak. That’s why he failed, why he died. Iura was the same. So he endured, so he covered it up. And Rubid Plenus? The same. As much as it galled him, he was weak. So he was powerless. The boy gritted his teeth at the undeniable truth.
“But don’t despair, Your Highness. You have potential.”
Then, Lubel whispered to the dejected Rubid. Tenderly, insidiously.
“Become strong. Become the strong one, not the weak—the taker and killer, not the taken and killed. That’s the only way you survive.”
The only way to survive. Those words stirred the obsession dormant within Rubid. As the boy’s eyes wavered, the count continued in a wistful tone.
“You can do it. With your noble blood, strong spirit, and the Authority of Grasha inherited, you can—more than enough.”
“How...”
“Hone your Authority and grow strong. Then earn value in His Imperial Majesty’s eyes.”
“In the Emperor’s eyes?”
“Your Highness, remember this. His Majesty is not human.”
As Rubid resisted, Lubel persuaded him more subtly.
“How could an immortal being be human? Think of him as the sun and moon. See his whims as inevitable storms or landslides. Accept them and use them. Just as Prince Iura does.”
At Iura’s name, Rubid’s eyes shook again. The count looked at the rough yet innocent boy and calmly drove the point home.
“Then no one will harm you. Not the other dukes, not even Prince Iura.”
The count understood the boy’s heart uncannily well. Rubid unwittingly unlatched his heart to the man who said exactly what he wanted to hear most. His eyes calmed as he accepted the advice. Seeing the change, Lubel leaned in and bowed respectfully to the young, naive prince.
“So focus on becoming strong, Your Highness. Don’t break, don’t yield—just prove your worth. Leave everything else to me.”
The virtues, etiquette, and norms a human ought to have? You don’t need them. The monster’s words are all right, and the monster’s actions will become law itself. The powerless human can only sadly follow. And the clever human puts a leash on the monster and treats it like a dog. The count bowed deeper to hide his smile. Fortunately, Rubid didn’t notice. And even now, he doesn’t know. ***
Rubid, who had been pressing his sleeve to his eyes, couldn’t contain his frustration and kicked the ground again, venting his rage. But with his shortened legs, most of it was futile flailing, driving him even madder. In the end, heedless that he was in the middle of a graveyard, Rubid flopped onto his back. It was over. He couldn’t fight the wraiths like this, couldn’t even return properly. And even if he did, it would be a problem. No one would welcome him as a mere child.
‘Maybe I should just die.’
Rubid thought that and gritted his teeth. Then he held his breath and pressed his sleeve tightly over his eyes again. It was then, as he held his breath for a moment.
“No way.”
A voice he really didn’t want to hear reached Rubid’s ear.
“Are you crying right now?”
It was Lena Lubel’s voice.