Chapter 29
#29
Beneath naturally flowing brown hair, his black eyes seemed to pierce through her, making her feel uneasy every time they met.
She didn't know if it was simply because of those eyes, or because of his excessively vivid appearance for a man.
Lucy lowered her head to hide her flushed cheeks.
"How could Your Highness...! I didn't think you would come to the banquet today...."
"Why did you think I wouldn't come? It's the birthday of my beloved consort, so I should naturally attend. Or are you displeased that I came like this?"
"Of course not!"
Lucy raised her head, revealing a fervent gaze. Far from being displeased, she was overjoyed to hear him say he came to celebrate.
The Crown Prince smiled faintly and turned his head, gesturing to a servant. The servant approached Lucy and politely handed her a box he was holding.
"This is...?"
It was a small jewelry box.
Not big enough for a necklace, but the right size for a small bracelet or brooch.
Did he know it was her birthday and prepare this in advance?
As she looked up at him with sparkling eyes, the Crown Prince curved his eyes and said in a deep voice,
"Open it. I think you'll like it."
With a pounding heart, she carefully opened the box.
The moment she saw what was inside, Lucy screamed and threw the box to the floor.
Inside the box was a finger.
Two white, slender fingers.
Probably... a woman's fingers.
"Ugh...!"
She covered her mouth with her hand, suppressing her nausea. Beyond the spinning vision, endless questions arose.
Why?
Why this of all things? Did he really give this as a gift?
Turning her eyes away from the floor, Lucy moved her tightly closed lips with difficulty.
"What is this...! What are you doing right now!"
"I said it was a gift. A keepsake from someone you love and cherish so much."
"I... love...?"
"Seeing as you ignored my pleas to tell me the royal family's secret passage, I thought you might need something to remind you of your position, so I prepared this especially."
Lucy stared at him with wide eyes, her gaze filled with horror. The sentence before the mocking words rang alarm bells in her heart.
What did he just say? A keepsake from someone she loves and cherishes?
"What... wh-what did you just say?"
"Look closely at the fingers."
Nausea kept rising, but anxiety surpassed it. Lucy forced her eyes down to look at the fingers.
She then discovered a small ring on the end of the blood-stained finger.
A crude ring made of thin silver, with silver thread and red thread twisted together. A ring that seemed to have no value at all...
It was definitely the ring Lucy had given to her mother before coming to the Empire, wishing her good health.
"Th-this. This is, this is...!"
Blood vessels burst in her wide eyes, turning the whites red. She couldn't control her trembling limbs.
The owner of these fingers.
Her mother, right now...
"I told you. If you just tell me the royal family's secret passage, I won't ask for anything more."
A faint sneer was mixed in with his low voice. Soon, a large hand slowly stroked her hair.
"It seems the Consort resembles her mother a lot. She was an outstanding beauty. It's a waste and a pity, so... I made sure she didn't suffer."
Tears didn't come. Only a boiling groan leaked from her parted lips.
All that remained in her vision, which had turned completely white, was her mother's finger lying on the floor.
I'll kill him.
I'm going to kill him.
A crazy bastard who doesn't see people as people and chops off their heads if they betray his will. A beast who, if he hadn't been born a Crown Prince, would have been branded a murderer and had his head put on the guillotine long ago.
To kill you, to kill you!
I've come back. I've become king. I've obtained the Master of Dawn to cut off your head!
I won't fail this time. I'll use all my strength to kill you. I'll give you the most terrible death throes!
Crazy bastard... you son of a bitch!
"I'm going to kill you... you piece of trash...!"
She cursed and slapped away the hand stroking her hair. Even as she tried to scream, only a groaning whimper leaked from her locked throat.
Again, a large hand came down and touched Lucy's forehead. Lucy reflexively grabbed his hand.
Had the Crown Prince's hands always been this big and rough...?
The calloused, clumsy hand felt strangely foreign. Belatedly, Lucy realized that she had been closing her eyes and opened her eyelids wide.
"Son... of a..."
The lips that had been muttering curses mumbled and swallowed the words. Lucy stared intently upwards with a flustered expression.
The man looking down at her was not the Crown Prince.
Black hair covering his forehead, skin so white it was hard to believe he was a soldier, and large eyes that somehow resembled a cow.
His straight, closed lips gave him a somewhat stubborn and obstinate look.
"Are you alright? You don't look well."
It was him. Walter.
Her sword and the one who led Lucy to the throne.
Lucy sighed and closed her eyelids again. His hand, which had been holding her, quietly fell away, and something she had been lying on wriggled and moved.
The thing she had been lying on was probably Walter's thigh.
"Where is this?"
She asked with a locked voice, her eyes still closed. The sound resonated deeply, indicating that it was a different place from where she had last closed her eyes.
"It's the private residence of the Heiberg family. The royal palace and the headquarters are not in a suitable state to serve Your Majesty, so I have taken the liberty of bringing you here."
"What about the aftermath...?"
"I have retreated the enemies from the headquarters outside the capital. Duke Kill is imprisoned in the underground prison of the headquarters, and the royal palace has been somewhat cleaned up. The Duke's second son said he would stay by the Duke's side, so I imprisoned him with him."
Lucy opened her eyes and looked out the window. She had only meant to close her eyes for a moment, but it was already almost dusk.
Trying to hide her embarrassed feelings, Lucy struggled to get up.
The scenery of a luxurious room, a world away from the dirty villa, unfolded before her eyes. After confirming that no one was there, Lucy sat next to Walter and straightened her clothes.
"It seems like only a little over half a day has passed, but you've handled things incredibly quickly. Thank you for your hard work, Walter."
Walter replaced his answer with a faint smile that was barely visible.
Beneath his disheveled shirt, there was a slight trace of saliva on the thigh she had been lying on. Lucy bit her lip and slyly averted her gaze.
Whether he hadn't had time to tidy up his clothes, Walter was wearing the same light shirt as when he started the operation. His naturally flowing bangs gave him a very youthful impression, but even his bangs couldn't hide the fatigue in his eyes.
Come to think of it.
He must be much more tired than her, but she felt belatedly guilty when she thought about how he hadn't slept and had even taken care of the aftermath. Besides, he had even brought her to his mansion to let her sleep.
"I'm sorry. I'll take care of the rest, so you should get some rest, Walter."
"Thanks to training, I'm fine even if I don't sleep for a few days. It seems to me that Your Majesty should get some more sleep. I thought you had a slight fever earlier."
"Really? I feel fine."
"No. It seems you weren't feeling well, as you kept hugging me and wouldn't let go. Come to think of it, you were wearing thin clothes all night last night. I'm worried that something might be wrong with you...."
Hugging him and wouldn't let go?
Just as she was about to ask what he meant, Walter unhesitatingly reached out and touched Lucy's forehead.
His emotionless eyes narrowed slightly, and his hand, which had been hovering over her forehead, grabbed her cheek and slid down her back.
Walter tilted his head to the side with an expression that was hard to read, and without giving her a chance to resist, he pulled Lucy into his arms. He hugged her tightly as if gauging something, and then asked in an uncertain tone.
"You still have a fever. I think you should rest a little more."
He said, picking Lucy up and starting to walk into the room.
Lucy wondered with an absurd feeling if this man was mistaking her for a dog or a cat.
She twisted her body slightly to get away, but unlike his slender appearance, Walter's body was so hard that every part of him that touched her, from his arms and chest to his stomach, seemed to be covered in muscles.
Walter put Lucy down in the bedroom connected to the reception room and covered her with the blanket up to her neck with both hands. Lucy lost the energy to get angry at his actions, which seemed beyond kind and even reverent, and decided to lie still.
"There were so many things I wanted to say to Your Majesty and so many things I wanted to ask... but when I actually saw Your Majesty, I was just grateful that you were safe."
Walter, who had been sitting on a stool and looking down at his knees, continued with an expression that was ambiguous as to whether he was smiling or not.
"You were magnificent. It's a strategy and achievement that no one would dare to imitate. Not as a subject, but as a warrior, I can't help but admire the feat Your Majesty has accomplished."
"I didn't do it to hear Walter's praise."
"But please refrain from such reckless operations in the future. I was deeply worried that something might happen to Your Majesty the entire time I was returning from the Duchy."
The way he narrowed his eyes and stared at her showed that what he had just said was not just a formality, but his true feelings.
Walter reached out and carefully swept back the strands of hair that were tickling Lucy's forehead.
"What kind of dream did you have that made you look so unwell?"
"Dream?"
"You kept sweating and talking in your sleep. It seems you had a nightmare."
Nightmare....
Could that be called a nightmare?
Was there even a word in the world that could describe that terrible past?
How many times she had been tortured, seen death, and been killed. She had been starving and crawling on the floor, eating all kinds of creatures.
Yesterday she was the noblest person in the world, and today she was a prisoner in an underground prison. The constant ups and downs of life gradually eroded the personality of Arsinoe itself.
All because of that bastard....
Her life had been ruined because of that one bastard.
She had come back to kill that devilish bastard. Damn him.
"Nightmare... yes. That's right. A human I want to kill even just thinking about him appeared in my dream. I wish I had woken up a little later."
"Why is that...."
"That bastard gave me a very nice gift. It would have been nice if I had not just cried but smashed his head with that jewelry box. If I had done that then, I wouldn't have had to have this dream... I regret it over and over again."
The dream she had just had... was probably a recurrence of her first life. Judging by her naive reaction to that bastard's evil deeds.
Yes.
She should have just smashed his head in.
Walter tilted his head at the incomprehensible words, but Lucy smiled brightly and brushed it off as nothing.
Walter, who had been silent, scratched the back of his neck and said in a low voice.
"I don't know who it is, but it seems Your Majesty's enemy appeared in your dream."
"That's right. Really, just thinking about it... someday I'll definitely cut off that bastard's head."
"......You don't have to do that. Your Majesty's enemy is my enemy, so I'll cut off his head. Who is it?"
Lucy held onto the blanket and widened her eyes.
She had expected him to scold her for using vulgar language, clear his throat and change the subject, or react in one of those two ways, but surprisingly, Walter was reciting the ecstatic confession she had wanted to hear the most.
He'll kill that bastard for her? Alex?
Her heart was pounding. Lucy pressed her chest and took quick breaths, in and out, in and out.
