Translator: Nox
(39) Star Festival and Ash-Colored Wolf (11)
Floyd walked, holding Roxana's hand.
Roxana, with her right hand not held by him, pressed down on her hat, which seemed about to be blown away by the wind, and looked around. The place they were walking was a narrow alley with hardly any people, and it was dim because there were no glittering magic stones here.
Roxana worried that an assassin might jump out from the darkness between the buildings. But Floyd, who had almost been targeted by an assassin's sword, showed no signs of vigilance at all.
'Is he that confident? Or is he just naturally fearless?'
Either way, his attitude, unlike someone who had almost been ambushed a little while ago, was surprising.
Emerging from the alley, they arrived at the beach. Not a harbor, but a beach with a wide sandy expanse. At the very edge of the sandy beach was a steep cliff.
Roxana stared blankly at the night sea for a moment.
The moon, illuminating the pitch-black darkness, created a long path of moonlight on the sea. The sight of the long light rippling with the undulating waves was fantastic.
Shooaaah-
The regularly heard sound was refreshing. The scent of the sea, stronger than what she had smelled at Lily Palace, had a corner that evoked a sense of longing. Even though it was her first time seeing the sea like this, it was as if she had been here a long time ago.
She didn't even realize that her hat had been blown away by the strong wind.
Only after Floyd picked up the blown-away hat and put it back on her head did Roxana take her eyes off the dark sea and look up at him.
"It's beautiful."
"Indeed. It's a place I love."
He took off his coat, spread it out on the sand, and laid it down. Then, sitting next to it, he patted the coat.
"Sit here."
"Thank you."
Roxana carefully sat on the coat, gathered her legs together, and hugged them with her arms. The two sat side by side like that, silently gazing at the sea for a while.
Roxana was the first to speak.
"Does that kind of thing happen often?"
"Once every few months. Sometimes three or four times a month."
"That often..."
Since no one attempted to ambush the Franche Royal Family, it was surprising that the Monarch of a country was threatened with assassination so frequently.
"There are quite a few who are seething because a young brat like me has special abilities and doesn't bow his head. Or there are those who want to kill me and take Torkan. For example."
Floyd turned to Roxana.
"Someone like the Peluru Crown Prince of Gania."
At first, Roxana didn't immediately understand who the 'Peluru Crown Prince of Gania' was referring to. The moment she felt his gaze and turned her head to meet his eyes, she realized he was talking about the man she had almost married.
"Lucas Pelur...?"
"Yes, that son of a btch... excuse me. That bad sb... that guy."
Roxana knew that Lucas hated Floyd. Lucas often cursed Floyd, who had left Gania and seized a country with his own power, as 'a guy who doesn't know his place and is ungrateful.'
But she never dreamed that he would actually send assassins to kill him. No matter how much he disliked him, they were brothers with the same father.
As if misunderstanding Roxana's silence, Floyd said.
"I didn't want to speak ill of the Princess's former fiancé, I'm sorry."
Former fiancé.
Yes, there was a time when he was her fiancé.
Roxana was able to vividly recall Lucas's face for the first time in a long time.
Brilliant blond hair, slender and long eyes with deep blue eyes, a fine jawline and white skin, a high nose and red lips.
Not just because he was the Crown Prince, but just with that face alone, he stirred women's hearts, that neat and handsome appearance.
And.
-"I've always been so sick of that side of you that I can't stand it."
-"Open it and show it to her. The Princess should know what happened to her family."
Their last meeting, his voice, his expression, his eyes, his movements, each and every one of them came to mind clearly, and her heart was constricted. The wound that had barely been patched up burst open, spilling blood.
Floyd didn't notice Roxana, who had stopped breathing to avoid wailing.
"But the Princess should know. That guy is originally like that. He's just a piece of trash doing trashy things. What happened in Kanta is like that."
"..."
"It's not the Princess's fault, nor is it the fault of anyone in the Franche Royal Family. It's just that he's trash."
Roxana lowered her gaze.
It was hard to look Floyd straight in the eye because she was trying to manage her pain.
Lucas, and Elise. She didn't want to hate those two. Not because she wanted to forgive them, but because she just wanted to erase their existence from her mind.
She wanted to think only of the grief of losing her family and the way to save her family. She didn't want to be swayed by any other thoughts or emotions.
-"If you hate them, you lose, Lotty."
Was it when she was 15? There was a time when she was very angry because of a young lady from a certain Marquess family. She had been seething all night, and her second older brother, Ian, said with a grin.
-"She's probably sleeping soundly right now, not thinking about you at all. If you're the only one who's so angry that you can't sleep, it's only a loss for you. So just forget about it. That's how you win."
The conversation she had with Ian at that time became a very big center in Roxana's life. Roxana tried not to hold onto hatred for a long time, even if there was a fight or argument with someone.
Because that's how you win. Because she believed that was victory.
'Is that true, Brother? Even in this situation, is it winning if I don't think about them?'
Roxana wanted to ask Ian.
'Even if Lucas and Elise killed all our family, threw them in the well, is it winning if I forget everything and live my life? Is that the way for me to win?'
Of course, Ian's answer did not come back.
Instead, Floyd's voice was heard.
"I sent someone to Kanta, and I got a message."
Roxana turned her head and looked at Floyd.
"They said a Rifts has appeared. Monsters are flowing out, causing great damage. Because of that, they couldn't even enter the capital."
"Monsters..."
Roxana squeezed her eyes shut.
Her heart ached when she thought of the people suffering because of the monsters. Dealing with monsters was difficult, so Gania would not actively send a subjugation force to help.
'And I... can't do anything either. Even though I survived.'
Towards Roxana, who had fallen into despair, Floyd said calmly.
"Gania won't just stand by and watch. They worked hard to get Kanta, so they won't let it be destroyed."
"Do you really think so?"
"Yes. They wanted Kanta's resources, but if it's all contaminated with Magical Energy, then everything they've done will be for nothing. To prevent that from happening, they will request support from the Empire and receive support to subjugate them."
"And the knights of Kanta who survived will be put into the subjugation. The knights who were loyal to the Franche Royal Family will risk their lives to protect Kanta and die, and the knights with shallow loyalty will save their lives and survive."
Roxana sighed.
"Gania will take in those surviving knights."
Floyd was a little surprised by Roxana's foresight. Floyd was thinking the same thing.
Absorbing the knights of a destroyed country with strong loyalty was not easy. The loyalty of the knights of a destroyed country could later become poison and come back.
However, killing all the knights was a waste. It took a lot of money and time to raise a knight, so it was clear that they would save any knights from the destroyed country who could be saved and make them knights of Gania.
Floyd was amazed that Roxana had quickly grasped that reality, and he decided that if she accepted reality so calmly, it would be okay to tell her the truth.
"The reason Lucas was able to enter Kanta with his troops was because of that Rifts. Lucas entered the capital of Kanta with many knights and soldiers, saying that he would help deal with the monsters flowing out of the Rifts."
"..."
"But do you know what? According to our investigation, it seems that the Rifts has only been around for about two months."
Roxana's eyes widened and then narrowed. Roxana stopped breathing and remained still for a while before opening her mouth.
"There's a black magician in Gania. He moved the monsters. Yes, so... that's why my father accepted Lucas and his troops without any suspicion. And that sword that was supposed to subjugate the monsters was aimed at my family..."
With just a few words, Roxana grasped the exact truth. Floyd was inwardly impressed, but Roxana forgot that he was even there and fell into thought.
'Monsters...'
She pictured her father, embarrassed by the sudden appearance of the Rifts and hurrying to ask the Empire for help. Her father would have welcomed Lucas, who appeared with knights to help, with open arms.
If Lucas had been a different person, he wouldn't have trusted him that much. But Lucas was Roxana's fiancé. He had been for a long time.
Lucas, who would soon become family, was not suspected by her father, her mother, or any of her siblings.
In that trust, Lucas and his knights drew their swords.
'It wouldn't have been a fight. It would have been a one-sided massacre.'
Her family, who had died at the hands of those they trusted without being able to do anything, was vividly drawn before her eyes.
'Elise, what role did you play there?'
The first son, Echion, the Crown Prince, and his family, and the youngest, Ranian, lived in the Royal Palace, but the second son, Ian, and the third, Naupride, had left the Royal Palace a long time ago. The reason they could kill them all at once was because they were all gathered at the Royal Palace.
'You must have gathered my family.'
