Chapter 17
Chapter 17
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: Farewell, Marso
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I placed both hands on his chest and pushed him away with all my strength.
"Darsi, enough now...."
Darsi, who had been silently listening to me, didn't budge an inch. What was he thinking?
As I furrowed my brows and lifted my head, my ear suddenly stung.
"Ack!"
Darsi had bitten my earlobe.
I let out a small scream and shoved him away, and this time he yielded without resistance. My bitten earlobe burned.
"W-what are you doing!"
As I stammered in surprise, Darsi smirked, lifting the corner of his mouth. The mischievous glint I thought had vanished earlier was back in his half-lidded eyes.
"It reminded me of that time you ignored what I said, so your ear annoyed me a bit."
His sparkling eyes were utterly infuriating.
I sighed and tried to persuade him.
"Darsi, this kind of thing...."
"Can't be done? Sadly, I've never had a friend, let alone a lover or first love, so I didn't know. I'll be careful from now on."
...He always knew how to leave me speechless. But admitting he'd never even had a first love was a bit much.
As I made a subtle face, Darsi tilted his head slightly.
"Maybe you could be my first love."
His words, laced with a hint of playfulness, comforted me. I'd grown used to his teasing remarks by now.
"You're smiling now."
"Sorry for showing you this side at the end."
Being an emotional person, I felt a pang of sadness at the thought of someone I'd grown fond of after so long leaving. I was definitely more attached and vulnerable than usual.
I really needed to spend some time recovering at home for a while.
Facing Darsi, I steeled my resolve and flashed my best smile.
"Then, goodbye. Darsi."
I waved my hand.
Darsi stared at me without a word.
Only after a long moment did Darsi's eyes crinkle into a smile.
"Goodbye, Marso."
It was the same farewell as always.
That was the last conversation we ever had.
Today was the last day I would meet Marso.
I had gathered plenty of magic crystals. Thanks to the contract, I could not only dispel the magic circle but also take the extra ones I'd packed today as travel funds.
'Finally.'
The day had come to break free from the chains enveloping the entire palace and binding me.
It was what I'd yearned for ever since my mother abandoned me and I was dragged here by the emperor.
To escape my mother's curse that strangled my life and live an ordinary existence, as if my ugly time here had never happened.
That lifelong dream had been my one thread of hope.
Every time I was dragged into battle, the same thought crossed my mind.
More than pointless revenge that would consume my life, I wanted to live a new one somewhere else.
Even if it was my biological father who'd used me my whole life, there was only so much time to spend on revenge, and my own time was too precious to waste on it all.
...And there was my mother's plea not to destroy Kies.
Blood ties, what nonsense. Even knowing I'd been abandoned, I couldn't forget her final request.
Meeting Marso hadn't changed that goal.
The time I'd held her was brief; my longing was lifelong.
'But why?'
Darsi's eyes narrowed.
His feet wouldn't move. Unlike usual, he couldn't leave first and only realized it after sending Marso out of the reception room ahead of him.
It was then that he thought maybe he'd been giving his heart to Marso all this time.
He overheard their conversation by chance.
It seemed Marso had run into the marquis in the corridor after bidding him farewell.
Marquis Etwar's voice was louder than expected, and Darsi's ears were sharp.
Their greeting was awkwardly uncomfortable. It came as no surprise.
Seeing Marso alone, he'd abandoned any notion she had a proper family.
He'd felt a slight kinship, thinking she was in a similar position to him.
Marquis Etwar spoke sporadically.
"His Imperial Majesty has sent you an invitation, Marso."
"...."
"It's for a dinner with Prince Ryan. It seems he views you as a candidate for crown princess. There's likely to be an investiture ceremony soon."
The moment he heard Ryan's name, a hollow laugh escaped Darsi's lips.
'Fucking bastard.'
The curse he'd grown accustomed to amid the chaos slipped out automatically.
While he toiled to the brink of death, the emperor's blood learning grand treatises on rulership and the swordplay befitting an emperor.
Ryan.
The simple reason the only publicly known prince hadn't been named crown prince yet was that Emperor Kies was using the position as bait.
Kies had used Darsi until his body and mind were in tatters, repeating how he was doing this because he saw him as crown prince material.
He didn't hesitate to torment him with false hope, asking why else he hadn't given the position to Ryan yet.
'In the end, I had to obey because of the curse anyway.'
It was a ruthless means to exploit Darsi even more effectively.
Darsi let out a bitter sigh.
Marso and the marquis's conversation continued.
Marso said she didn't want to go. Marquis Etwar tried to coax her.
"Marriage to the prince wouldn't be bad for you. We can't refuse this invitation from our side, so go and think it over."
His flat tone grated on him terribly.
'If I go snap his neck, will he shut up?'
It was laughable how he pretended to listen when he had no intention of considering her opinion from the start. His words were irritating.
...No, actually, it wasn't just his words that irritated him.
Time after meeting Marso flowed like a play.
He didn't know what they'd talked about in such a short time. Being on the verge of leaving made everything easy. Speaking without thought, baring his true feelings.
But he couldn't leave.
He couldn't return to Saisen Palace, where everything was already prepared.
Darsi asked himself.
'Why am I standing here frozen just because of some marquis's voice I barely know.'
When everything was over.
When he could truly let it all go.
'It seems he views you as a candidate for crown princess.'
Ryan, of all people. It made Marso seem overwhelmingly wasted on him.
He couldn't let Marso get engaged to that scum. She was too good even if someone was by her side. At least they had to be as handsome as him.
Personality? Well, tolerable would do....
This unfamiliar emotion was new. He'd never cared who was with whom before.
It had been similar when he'd heard the rumors about that theater actor.
'Is it because she's my first friend?'
He'd read in books that close friends look out for each other.
Trouble. Imagining Ryan and Marso side by side twisted his guts.
He knew it would happen naturally once he left, which made it worse.
Ryan's feelings didn't matter. Emperor Kies had a tendency to push what he'd decided to the end.
'...Damn it.'
Cursing inwardly, Darsi irritably ruffled his hair.
This wasn't it.
He should have left already.
The plan for a perfect escape had become chains binding his ankles.
Trouble. He was already trapped.
The chains dug deeper the more he struggled.
At this point, he had to admit it.
He cared about Marso Etwar's future.
He couldn't leave Marso alone—poised on the surface but fragile inside.
The moment that thought struck, reasons flooded in.
Because he knew how much of a trash Ryan was.
Because he knew how different Marso was from the rumors.
'Above all.'
The fleeting, quiet happiness he'd felt during their time together was etched deep in his mind, refusing to leave.
She was the first person to make him feel a happiness he'd thought impossible here.
How could he turn away now?
He couldn't leave.
The realization was instantaneous.
He didn't know exactly what this emotion was. But one thing was clear.
He couldn't bear to watch Marso walk into misfortune.
Even if it upended his life's plan.
Darsi grinned fiercely. The photo in his hand crumpled miserably.
Perhaps it was spite toward Marso for unsettling his mind after just a few meetings.
Glancing at the photo, he erased the lingering emotions.
'I can just take more later.'
She'd given it as a final gift. Since it wasn't the end, its meaning had faded.
'If I hadn't seen that face today, would it have bothered me this much?'
Darsi rubbed his lips, recalling Marso's face.
The emptiness and loneliness when she said he was leaving. The satisfaction swelling when he'd glimpsed her vulnerable side, so different from her usual confidence. The thrill that only he knew this side of her. A exhilarating rush he'd never felt before consumed him.
Once he admitted he couldn't leave, everything became easy.
Life plan changed.
He'd prevent Marso's misfortune and leave after. Until then, he had to stay and protect this place.
But Kies wouldn't yield easily. To defy him and let things go Marso's way, he'd need real power.
Lost in thought, Darsi raised one eyebrow and crossed his arms.
'...And I might as well get some revenge on the side.'
His hatred had dulled over time, but with the opportunity, there was no reason to refuse.
As that thought formed, speed returned to his heavy steps. Faster than he expected.
There was much to consider. He couldn't waste time here.
Perhaps deep down, he'd always wanted to betray his mother's final plea and choose revenge.
In the reception room, Darsi vanished in an instant.
As always, he arrived in the bathroom.
Darsi immediately noticed the air felt different from usual. It carried a scent he knew all too well.
Straightening his clothes, he instantly knew who it was.
The protagonist of a memory he'd never forget.
"You're finally here."
The emperor Kies's incense scent filled not just the room but the bathroom as well.