Translator: Nox

Chapter 20

Calyx whispered into Padrick’s ear in a low, chilling voice.

“……! What……!”

“Ah, my mistake. I briefly forgot.”

Calyx’s large hand suddenly covered the crown of Padrick’s head. He stroked Padrick’s hair in the same way he used to pet his younger cousin back when he was still the Crown Prince.

“There’s no way you would know.”

Slowly, deliberately, from the crown to the back of the head.

“You’re nothing more than the Queen’s puppet, after all.”

A pathetic soul who would eventually be unable to do anything on his own, having spent a lifetime failing to meet his mother’s expectations.

“Because you’re a mama’s boy.”

That was the nickname the servants drifting in and out of Danger Palace used for him.

It wasn’t just the servants of Danger Palace; every official who frequented the Royal Palace knew that nickname. It was the Crown Prince’s great shame, one that perhaps the entire Kingdom was aware of.

Padrick trembled with humiliation as he stared at his opponent.

The man who knew his weaknesses best smiled back with a gaze full of pity.

In that face, Padrick read the same look his mother gave him when she looked at her pathetic, stupid son.

— That is something you do not need to know.

— I will take care of everything, so you just need to walk the path I have paved for you…….

“Shut up!”

Padrick’s fist slammed into Calyx. A dull, cracking sound erupted.

* * *

Amidst a fever that felt as if she had swallowed a ball of fire, Lottie drifted through a series of dreams.

The first was a dream of her mother, who had passed away long ago.

Her mother, whom she only remembered as a figure lying in a sickbed, was reading a fairy tale to her younger self.

It was a story from a long time ago about a King who loved his only daughter so much that he held a grand competition to find the best husband for her. After three trials, the Princess married a man.

“Lottie. Oh, my angel Lottie. For you, just like the princess in the story, there will be a single prince who is prepared to overcome countless trials for your sake.”

Her mother had stroked her cheek while saying those words. In the dream, that face was already clouded with the unmistakable shadow of death.

“The Madam was already frail, but her condition worsened rapidly after she gave birth to the young lady…….”

“If she had listened to the doctor and had an abortion, she would have lived twice as long as she did. To die at such a tragic age…….”

The first dream ended with the thoughtless, whispering voices of the maids.

The characters in the second dream were none other than her ex-husband.

It was from the time when she had become Queen and was spending lonely days in the castle. On a day when she had been bedridden for several days with a terrible cold, her husband never showed his face once.

When she tentatively told a maid that she missed her husband, he flew into a rage upon hearing the message, demanding to know what she would do if he caught her cold.

He is the King responsible for the Kingdom, so it would be a disaster if he fell ill. I was the foolish one, she had reproached herself.

When she finally fell asleep after swallowing her tears, she felt a cold touch against her burning forehead.

When she opened her eyes, her husband was sitting by the bed.

“If you were this sick, you should have said something. Does it make you feel better to make me out to be a heartless husband?”

Even though he blamed his sick wife to the very end with an expression like a man being dragged to a slaughterhouse, she was happy just for the fact that he had come to see her.

She closed her eyes, rebuking herself for having doubted her husband’s love, even for a moment.

She wished she would never wake from this happy dream.

And the third dream was…….

* * *

The two large men were so entangled in their struggle that they didn’t realize what was happening on the other side of the room.

It was a phenomenon that occurred in total silence.

Just as Lottie, lying on the bed, let out a shallow breath as if she were on the verge of death, a blue light began to shimmer around her body.

The light, wavering like a formless soul, caressed Lottie’s cheek a few times before vanishing.

After the blue light disappeared, Lottie’s irregular breathing gradually turned steady.

A moment later, the heat that had been scorching her body also vanished.

“……Rick.”

At the faint voice that broke out like a sigh, the two roughly entangled men stopped moving simultaneously.

She had clearly said ‘Rick.’ Coincidentally, it was a sound common to both the names Calyx and Padrick.

Furthermore, Rick was Padrick’s childhood nickname.

Sensing his victory, Padrick laughed savagely while pinned on top of Calyx’s body.

Even as Padrick grabbed Calyx by the collar and threw another punch, Calyx’s gaze was entirely fixed on Lottie.

“Rick…….”

As soon as Lottie’s frail call was heard once more, the locked door began to rattle violently.

The people outside, sensing that something dire was happening within, had finally decided to break the door down.

Thump! Thump!

Padrick, staring at the door that was on the verge of bursting open, suddenly let go of Calyx’s collar. He slowly stood up from Calyx’s body.

Padrick’s face as he looked down at Calyx was perfectly fine, save for a bit of sweat. In contrast, Calyx, who had been on the receiving end of a one-sided beating, had a split lip.

This was because Calyx knew that if he laid a hand on the Crown Prince’s person, he would be summarily executed on the spot, regardless of the circumstances.

“No matter how much you talk like a big shot…… in the end, I’m the winner. You know that?”

Padrick muttered gloomily.

Calyx’s eyes widened at what happened next.

Padrick raised a hand and struck his own cheek.

Once, twice, three times……. After several consecutive blows, his pale cheek flushed red and blood trickled from his lips.

Padrick grinned, revealing blood-stained teeth. Calyx, realizing his scheme too late, sprang to his feet.

At that exact moment, the latch snapped off and the door swung open.

“……! Yo-Your Highness the Crown Prince!”

In the midst of the chaos, Lottie finally opened her eyes.

‘Again…… this wretched dream.’

The feeling when a dream she wished would never end vanished like a mirage was still disgusting.

Lottie sat up in bed with a mind clearer than ever before, only to freeze at the sight before her.

The bedroom door thrown wide open, servants pouring inside, her ex-husband standing there for some unknown reason with a red, swollen face, and…….

“To dare inflict injury upon the body of the Crown Prince!”

Calyx, the only one looking at her amidst the mayhem.

Even as Padrick branded him a traitor, Calyx ignored everything else and only sought out Lottie’s eyes. Even a cursory glance showed he had been hit twice as much as the Crown Prince, yet he didn’t even offer an explanation.

When he finally succeeded in catching Lottie’s gaze, Calyx’s reddish-brown eyes sank low.

“An act of harming me is an act of harming this Kingdom! What are you doing! Bring the soldiers; I will have this man arrested immediately!”

At Padrick’s angry voice, several servants recoiled in fear and scurried away.

Soldiers? Was he determined to turn a normal household into a wasteland?

Lottie stood up from the bed in shock. She then pushed all the servants still remaining in the room outside.

“Do not come in until I open the door. And you, go quickly and bring my Great-Aunt.”

Leaving the startled faces of the servants behind, Lottie closed the door.

She tried her best to act calm, but her heart was pounding.

She didn’t know the full story because she had been unconscious. However, she knew for a fact that her ex-husband was lying right now.

She knew that the end of his voice trembled slightly whenever he was being stubborn. If there was one thing she had gained from seven years of marriage, it was that.

‘Calyx would never have laid a hand on my ex-husband. But, will anyone believe my words?’

“Your Highness.”

Calyx spoke through the tense air. His voice was eerily calm.

“Even if my head is to be cut off, I shall leave Your Highness with one interesting riddle before I go.”

Even while mentioning his own death, there was a hint of laughter in his voice.

Lottie looked back at Calyx while clutching the doorknob.

He was the one cornered, yet he looked larger than Padrick.

“Are you aware of what the region called Dempis, located near the border northwest of the Capital, is famous for?”

Lottie flinched at the name she never expected to hear from that man’s mouth. Dempis was Lottie’s hometown and the fief of the House of Count Ix.

Padrick, sensing something ominous, furrowed his brows.

“Lake Mofit, imbued with the beautiful love story of a night fairy and the god of dreams, is well-known as a summer resort for the nobility. The port city of Everport has been an emerging city of gastronomy for several years, with foodies constantly visiting in search of delicacies. Not to mention the historic mining villages of Dempis.”

“What kind of nonsense are you up to now…….”

“And finally, madmen.”

Both Lottie and Padrick froze at the unexpected answer.

“A Crown Prince, who just the day before had sworn loyalty before his father the King, became a madman overnight and killed his own father.”

“…….”

“And currently, Your Highness is obsessed with that woman, rejecting the daughters of countless influential families.”

Calyx smiled quietly.

“I wonder, what could that mean?”

The question was directed at Padrick, but Calyx’s gaze was fixed on Lottie standing behind Padrick’s shoulder.

It was a calm yet persistent look, as if he were hoping she would realize something.

“…….”

Lottie froze, forgetting how to breathe for a moment.

Come to think of it, the eyes of the tyrant who had pierced her heart in her past life were not reddish-brown.

They had been a chilling, cold blue, as if he had long since forgotten what emotions were.

“I hope that this time, you will solve it yourself without your mother’s help.”

Calyx’s final remark, laced with a laugh, finally snapped the last string of Padrick’s nerves.