Chapter 71
Chapter 71
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 71
Chapter Title: The Second Escape
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Count Rocania let out a sigh of relief upon hearing the tip that Daphne had escaped. Success. It had been a stroke of luck that she had trusted and followed the knight Daphne had suddenly dispatched.
“It’s fortunate he hasn’t woken up.”
Count Rocania ground his teeth. To think he had taken the poison in Daphne’s place. It was undoubtedly a pathetic death.
The count pondered what to do next. If Asherad died, it wouldn’t mean much for his revenge. He didn’t want revenge against the royal family—he wanted to kill Asherad, who had driven Fabian to his death.
In the end, if Daphne had been the cause of that death, he was more than willing to help her. The poor girl. The count clicked his tongue.
“Support her generously until she settles down.”
Count Rocania said. He smiled in satisfaction. Revenge accomplished without getting his own hands dirty felt a bit unsatisfying, but thrilling.
“Die, you monster bastard.”
Count Rocania smiled. In the end, he decided to continue playing the loyal subject. After all, with the emperor poisoned, moving carelessly could lead those who disliked him to brand him the culprit.
“Your Excellency!”
One of his house’s retainers came running in a panic. His face was pale as a sheet.
“What is it?”
“It’s just that……!”
At the retainer’s report, Count Rocania’s face instantly lost its smile.
* * *
Dragged along by a mysterious man, Daphne stepped out of the imperial palace. Everything had been too easy. The palace was in chaos, and while people coming in were checked thoroughly, those leaving were not properly monitored.
It was strange.
As she stepped onto the capital’s night streets outside the palace, Daphne thought. Could freedom really be obtained this easily?
By doing that to Asherad, had she truly gained this freedom? Daphne walked the streets but couldn’t savor this dreamlike liberty.
Outside, it was harvest festival season, and lively music filled the air, oblivious to the emperor’s critical condition. Someone bumped into her shoulder.
“Oh, sorry!”
A young man smiled sheepishly. After that, Daphne bumped into several more people, but they all smiled apologetically at her. A strange surge of emotion welled up through her body. Tears streamed from Daphne’s eyes.
What they showed her wasn’t thick affection or goodwill.
It was simply the courtesy extended to a stranger.
No one here recognized Daphne.
Here, she wasn’t the daughter of a criminal. She was just someone who had bumped into them.
She was now a nobody.
She was finally free from those contemptuous gazes that had once called her dirty even for an accidental bump.
Daphne didn’t yet know what that world was like. But now, she would come to know it. Realizing that, she began to sob.
The retainer of Count Rocania said,
“We need to get out of the capital quickly.”
“I know.”
“…….”
“But there’s just one place I want to stop by.”
“…….”
“Is that no good?”
The man looked at Daphne’s face and soon nodded. He too had learned of her situation while infiltrating the palace.
The emperor wouldn’t be able to track her anyway, and the escape had been quite successful. With the crowds, finding a carriage to flee in wasn’t easy right now.
“You need to come out quickly.”
Daphne nodded.
The place she entered was the exhibition hall hosting the Raphaello Art Festival. For the first time, she obtained a ticket and went inside. For the first time, she viewed it with joy.
The paintings were colorful and beautiful.
A painting of a lavender field at sunset with stunning colors, a night sky rendered in bold brushstrokes, grand historical pieces, and heroic tales.
“Wahaha!”
There were even clear, storybook-like depictions of fairy tales she had only heard of. Daphne gazed at this dreamlike place as if entranced.
She wanted to stay longer, but time was short. She carefully made her way to where her own painting was. Her heart pounded. She headed to the section for rookie artists.
There hung the painting she had submitted with such difficulty.
Unlike the masters’ works, the rookies’ paintings filled the walls densely, like wallpaper. As soon as she turned to the next wall, Daphne froze. An enormous sound echoed in her ears.
It was an unnaturally rapid heartbeat. No, Daphne’s heart stopped for a moment.
Her painting was on the wall. Not in the center. She wasn’t a standout rookie; she was just one of the nameless masses.
It was hung in the upper right corner, but to Daphne’s eyes, her painting was perfectly visible.
The fairy caught by the Sun God turning into a laurel tree.
“Daphne.”
Daphne murmured her own name. Daphne, loved by the Sun God, rejected that love and lost her humanity, becoming a tree.
A tragic love story. For the fairy Daphne, at least.
Daphne stared piercingly at the painting. The woman whose limbs were turning into branches screamed in agony. And the Sun God stared piercingly at her.
Since the god wasn’t human, he wouldn’t understand why this woman was in pain, why she rejected him to become a tree.
The god’s cold ignorance and the woman’s suffering.
The pain of having to abandon her humanity to become a tree. Daphne knew that pain all too well.
And those poured-out emotions were captured on canvas, exhibited here.
It was such a precious moment. She, who had accomplished nothing, the weak girl always despised and dragged around—her life finally felt validated.
It’s okay.
This is enough.
As long as this painting exists, I can be myself forever.
Daphne smiled. Memories flooded back of staying up all night secretly painting it from Asherad. She offered thanks to Yohannis.
That was when she turned around.
“……!”
Daphne swallowed a near-scream. Standing behind her was Yohannis. The knight from Count Rocania had vanished. Daphne stared at him with wide eyes.
“Miss Daphne, I knew you’d be here.”
“……H-how.”
“Let’s go back.”
Daphne paled. Yohannis stared piercingly at her face.
“His Majesty has opened his eyes.”
At that declaration, Daphne’s heart plummeted. She glanced back and forth between the painting and Yohannis. Yohannis said stiffly,
“Do you want to escape? If so, I’ll pretend I didn’t see you.”
Pretend he didn’t see? For a moment, Daphne nearly thanked him.
She wanted to shake him off and run outside right then. To feel that brief taste of freedom, that liberation, forever.
She didn’t want to return to that prison where death loomed alongside contempt and restraint.
“But if you return, I’ll let your outing slide.”
“…….”
“Do you hate being by His Majesty’s side?”
Daphne’s lips trembled for an instant. She looked at Yohannis.
“Tomorrow is the night of the Masquerade Ball, isn’t it?”
Daphne asked in a quivering voice. Yohannis nodded quietly. Peace gradually settled over her distraught face. She let out a deep sigh and looked at her painting.
“The truth is, I didn’t want to go there. I didn’t want to choose the Empress Dowager’s dress or the Thalassa Princess’s dress.”
“…….”
“I wanted to wear that poor painter’s clothes and see my painting here.”
“…….”
“That’s what I wanted.”
A life doing what she loved, not being toyed with as a pawn in the palace’s power struggles.
That was what Daphne desired. But she knew it too. For a true rookie, getting a painting hung here was nearly impossible. It was only because Yohannis had pulled strings.
“Let’s go.”
Daphne smiled. Asherad had awakened, and Yohannis had come to fetch her. Even if she ran, how far could she get?
Besides…….
Daphne narrowed her eyes. For now, returning was to her advantage. Better than a sloppy escape. Escaping at a more certain time would be wiser.
Daphne thought so.
Or perhaps, she was trying to convince herself of that.
Even while looking at the painting, the image of Asherad collapsing, bleeding, hadn’t left a corner of her mind.
* * *
Daphne approached Asherad, who lay there. His face was still pale, dark circles under his eyes. The three days of illness showed in those shadowed eyes, his lips a bloodless grayish-white.
He looked like a living corpse.
Was he really awake?
Daphne stared at Asherad and thought, then chuckled softly. The mere fact that she could be this close to him here proved he had awakened.
Before her escape, when she had gone to see him, she had been chased away after only a short time.
Beads of cold sweat dotted Asherad’s forehead. As she picked up the damp cloth from the side table to wipe it,
Thud!
Her wrist was seized. Daphne dropped the cloth in surprise. The strong grip twisted her face in pain. Asherad had opened his eyes and was looking at her. His sharp green eyes blazed with anger.
“Where have you been?”
Yohannis had let her outing slide. Daphne trembled as she said,
“I was in my room. I went to see Your Majesty, but they said you needed rest and wouldn’t let me in……. I heard you’d awakened late.”
A scoff escaped, like deflating air.
“That’s not what I’m asking, Daphne.”
“…….”
“Where did you ‘go out’ to?”