A Blend of Romance and Fantasy - Chapter 26

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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26.
“Brother, that’s Sincestrium, isn’t it?”
Sincestrium.
How to describe it—perhaps not the most appropriate thing to mention in such a solemn atmosphere, but it’s easiest to think of it as a random draw box for sacred relics.
However, the problem was that once you drew a sacred relic, you couldn’t use any other sacred relic besides that one. Though you could still use holy power.
“This Sincestrium will surely bestow upon you a sacred relic befitting you.”
“Brother….”
Couldn’t I just live quietly without possessing any sacred relic?
‘Indeed, it seems the academic consensus holds that acquiring power inevitably entangles one in troublesome affairs.’
Moreover, there’s that saying about how great power comes with great responsibility, isn’t there?
I was born as a Princess and enjoyed many privileges in exchange for fulfilling my royal duties, and because of that, I altered the original story.
I thought it was all over, but now I’ve been granted holy power.
“Sigh, perhaps this too is the fate of a transmigrated soul. My romantic subplot may have failed, but I was indeed the female lead of a transmigration story.”
“Charlotte, what nonsense are you spouting?”
Leaving Aurora behind with her coldly narrowed eyes, I shook my head.
“It’s nothing.”
I stepped toward Erdan’s side and smiled brightly.
“There’s a saying that if you can’t avoid something, you might as well enjoy it. I’ll draw a sacred relic.”
“You’re still the Charlotte I know.”
Erdan smiled and pulled back the cloth. A golden box with a rosy hue came into view.
As if entranced, I placed my hand upon Sincestrium.
The outer surface slowly opened like a blooming flower bud, and the box revealed itself amid a faint mist.
The box was extraordinarily shallow in height.
Perhaps only a three-tiered cake could fit inside. Yet I’d heard that its interior was as deep and vast as the universe itself.
“Place your hand inside the box.”
I moistened my dry lips with my tongue, then slowly inserted my hand into the box.
Something caught against my hand.
‘A chain?’
Startled by the cold, firm sensation of the chain, I nevertheless applied force and pulled it toward me.
As its form gradually revealed itself, my mouth fell open in astonishment.
What emerged tangled in the chain was a bow, arrows, and a horse’s saddle.
* * *
Dawn, when the sun had just risen.
The Training Ground of Sincester was unlike Blake.
Perhaps because it was the Training Ground of the Holy Knights, the practice targets before my eyes were wooden logs carved to resemble monsters.
It felt utterly unfamiliar compared to Blake, where they practiced on human-shaped dummies.
Yet for Leonard, it was rather welcome. He needed time to clear his mind of troubling thoughts.
—Swear upon Ragnarok’s heart!
Even after swinging his sword hundreds of times, he couldn’t forget those words.
Ragnarok….
How cruel time is—I cannot afford to forget that day’s horrors.
The despair and agony carved deep into my bones were gradually scattering, buried beneath the weariness of the present.
“…Sigh.”
I was swinging my sword rapidly, again and again.
When I heard rhythmic footsteps approaching from behind, I slowly lowered my blade.
“Your mind is clouded in your swordplay.”
“…Duke.”
I turned around at the voice that carried the weight of dawn.
It was Cedric, as expected.
I couldn’t tell whether he had come to the Training Ground to train and happened to encounter me by chance, or if he had sought me out deliberately.
“I wanted to see Blake’s swordcraft. Would you be willing to spar with me?”
“…I cannot compare to the continent’s greatest Holy Knight. It’s obvious I would lose.”
“You’re being far too modest. Isn’t Blake called the heir of the dragon slayer?”
“And weren’t you called a prodigy of the holy sword at Elisium Military Academy from the age of fourteen? I only earned that title when I turned twenty-one.”
Of course, there was no reason to avoid a sparring match.
However, I didn’t want to draw attention to myself in Sincester by any means. That one instance of bitter sarcasm alone at the Training Ground before was enough.
‘Why did I even do that back then?’
It should be welcome that Cedric, the continent’s greatest Holy Knight, was coming to Blake.
So maintaining good relations with him would be far more beneficial, yet seeing him with Charlotte in such an intimate manner stirred up an indescribable emotion within me.
It was best to avoid making another mistake.
“Use the Training Ground if you wish. I’ll be heading inside.”
I turned away after speaking. But Cedric was faster.
“Then shall I mention another epithet?”
He blocked my path and drew the sword at his waist. His voice was low and quiet, yet unmistakably clear.
“‘The Death-Devouring Demon.'”
“…!!”
In that instant, my jaw clenched rigid. Veins involuntarily rose across the back of my hand.
It was a title I thought I would never hear again.
Everyone who knew that epithet besides myself had vanished without graves, without tombstones, without names.
They should have disappeared into Blake’s dark history—so how did a duke from a distant kingdom come to know it?
‘Ah, there is one person who would know….’
Cedric’s voice poured over my clenched fist.
“I heard you were the child of an annihilated clan who entered the Punishment Unit bearing original sin. Yet now you appear as the Sixth Prince and speak to me with disrespect.”
“….”
Cedric’s scabbard gleamed brilliantly beneath the sun.
The holy sword shining pure white and beautifully stood in stark contrast to my ashen greatsword.
In that moment, clarity struck me. I met Cedric’s gaze directly.
Yet those two burning blue flames—when I realized how sacred that gaze was, I could only offer a twisted smile.
“What do you want? Are you hoping to expose my identity and drag me down, demanding formal speech?”
“I have no such intention. Using formal speech with you in front of others, bowing my head—none of it matters to me. Everything I do is for Sincester.”
“But there must be a reason you’re telling me this.”
Despite the sarcasm in his tone, Leonard’s expression remained serene as he caressed the hilt of his greatsword.
This was not the face of a man whose shameful past had been exposed by another.
In fact, I wondered if he even considered his past shameful at all.
Soft birdsong drifted through the morning air, which had grown pleasantly warm.
The laughter of maids carrying laundry echoed from somewhere, creating a tranquil morning atmosphere.
In this remarkably serene morning, Cedric’s composure was equally unshakeable.
His lips moved before Leonard with the flawless precision of a perfect glass sculpture.
“So that once everything is finished, you will release the Princess.”
His voice was as resolute as steel, his posture as upright as any knight’s could be.
—Brother, be careful when you abduct the Saint. They say the Holy Knight Order Commander resides there—one blessed by the heavens, called a prodigy of the Holy Sword.
Suddenly, his younger brother’s voice echoed through Leonard’s mind.
I wondered what divine favor one must receive to earn such a title.
Cedric seemed to be constructed entirely of sanctity and morality from head to toe.
Even his words were excessively romantic.
‘They said he became cold-hearted after becoming a Holy Knight, but in the end, he changed by learning to love.’
A perfect happy ending. The natural result befitting this world’s male protagonist.
As that thought reached me, an inexplicable sense of defeat and self-reproach washed over me.
“Your love for the Princess is quite moving. I would have done the same anyway.”
“Will you truly release the Princess once this is all over?”
“Release her? She is not a possession. The Princess has the freedom to go wherever she wishes of her own volition. And….”
No, there’s no need to say that.
“That’s enough. Leave if our conversation is finished.”
Leonard shook his head and passed by Cedric.
But before he could take more than a few steps, an irritating voice reached his ears from behind.
“…I’m sorry.”
Sorry. It was a word he found difficult to comprehend. He didn’t particularly want to hear it either.
What could he possibly be sorry for? For telling him to release the Princess? Or for investigating his background?
As my mind grew turbulent and I clenched my jaw, Cedric threw out one final statement.
“Still, I genuinely lament the life you’ve had to endure.”
The moment his words ended, something closer to hollow emptiness swept through me than anger.
My hand rose to the hilt of the greatsword I had planted in the ground, as if brushed by wind.
The cold, solid, and familiar grip only deepened the void within.
Leonard gazed upon his massive blade and muttered.
“Come to think of it, I’ve been wanting to cross swords with a Holy Knight. Since I’m here, why don’t we have a match?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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