A Blend of Romance and Fantasy - Chapter 59

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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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59.
The next day, thanks to Cedric’s remarkable navigation skills, we managed to descend the mountain safely.
What a joke.
Remarkably, we had wandered the mountain for an entire week.
During that time, Cedric had been relentlessly cutting down monsters, while I constantly had to search for shelter and expend my protective magic, and…
I had to wander about looking like a beggar.
I couldn’t even eat properly.
I once read a fantasy novel where the heroine and male lead wandered through mountains like this, nurturing love through adventure. Ugh.
‘It would feel more realistic if love bloomed between the mansion’s maid and a stable hand instead of here.’
Novels truly were just novels.
We were able to descend because we encountered the Territory Patrol, who regularly patrolled the mountain.
The problem was that they suspected us of being runaway slaves and drew their swords against us.
Cedric felled five patrol members in the blink of an eye.
One patrol member named Mark shed tears and snot alike, begging desperately before Cedric and me.
“P-please spare me!!”
“Don’t worry, I won’t kill you. I just have some questions.”
“Yes! Yes!!”
“Where is this place, and how can we descend this mountain?”
“Ah, this place is…”
With Mark’s kind assistance, we managed to descend the mountain safely.
In the process, we obtained money, the patrol member’s clothes, and Mark’s genuine sword.
Of course, we didn’t steal them.
The kind Mark gave them to us.
As we descended the mountain, we saw the inn that Mark pointed to while sniffling.
The emblem attached to the signboard was none other than Silverstone, the crest of Benjamin Prince’s estate.
‘It was indeed wise not to reveal our names…’
Leonard is currently being despised by the 3rd Empress, after all.
I exhaled a sigh of relief and looked back at Mark.
“Mark? You do understand what you should say if someone asks about us two later, don’t you?”
“Of course! I absolutely don’t know you two! I was merely dreaming!”
“Good.”
I smiled broadly and patted Mark’s broad shoulders.
“You’re fortunate. Since you follow orders so obediently, I’ll give you this.”
As I handed him something, Cedric frowned slightly.
“Your Highness. This is…”
“Why? We don’t need it anymore.”
What I handed to Mark was the necklace I had received from the Princess.
“Ah, Cedric doesn’t seem to understand what this is? This is trash. It originally held great value, but it became worthless the moment it passed through the hands of the one who gave it.”
“Eh?”
Both Mark and Cedric wore expressions of utter bewilderment.
But I smiled slightly and pressed the necklace firmly into Mark’s hands.
“If you sell this, you could probably live off the proceeds for a decade. Just make sure you go to an honest jeweler and not some shady merchant!”
“Ah? Oh, yes. Yes.”
“Then get some sword training in!”
I waved to him, then walked with Cedric down the stone road leading into the city.
Before long, the bustling downtown came into view, and at its center stood the Public Teleport Gate.
“Cedric, let’s hurry!”
The Public Teleport Gate in the city was a place anyone could use if they paid a Mage to cast the teleportation spell.
Now I just needed to find a suitable Mage, pay them, and teleport to the Capital.
But that was when it happened.
“Isn’t that… the Princess of Sincester who was kidnapped?”
“Oh… really?”
Someone spotted us and began whispering.
‘Right, it’s about time people started recognizing me. It was strange that the Patrol Unit didn’t know who I was.’
Yet I felt sharp gazes piercing through me.
It was unmistakable hostility.
The Patrol Unit could be said to dislike me for marrying Leonard.
They had to remain loyal to Benjamin, after all.
But the common people of the Blake Empire were too busy living their lives to care much about a change in rulers.
Cedric also sensed the hostility and whispered quietly to me.
“Your Highness, let’s come back when there are fewer people. Something feels wrong.”
“Is that so?”
Panicked, I ran away from the Public Teleport Gate as Cedric instructed.
“Just to be safe, would you cover your face? We don’t know what might have happened in the Capital during the week we were gone.”
“Understood.”
I gently covered my face with the hood I had… well, borrowed from the Patrol Unit, then pointed toward an inn.
“Then let’s get something to eat first and gather some information. And Hippolyte needs to be fed properly too.”
“An inn? Are you certain about that?”
Cedric spoke with a bewildered expression, but I merely grinned in response.
“What do you know? Food from outside tastes even better.”
The inn we happened to enter was incredibly lively.
We ate using the money we had borrowed from Mark.
A sandwich of soft white bread spread with butter, filled with cheese, bacon, and cabbage.
Yak meat soup. The moment I received milk mixed with strawberry jam, I devoured it as quickly as a crab disappears into sand.
Cedric, who had been eating slowly and maintaining his dignity, widened his eyes as he watched me.
“What?”
“You’re so different from how you are in the Royal Palace.”
“Do I really need to maintain etiquette even here?”
“…I see. Then if you’ll forgive me.”
Cedric also began eating with his mouth wide open.
Yet as expected of the male lead—his eating manners were excessively refined and elegant.
Had he not pulled the hood over his head, every woman in this inn would have stared in this direction, and his identity would have been exposed without question.
While he ate, I questioned the Innkeeper, who was brewing beer right before my eyes, about the week’s events.
The gossip-loving Innkeeper’s account was as follows.
The one who attempted to kill the Princess directly was Josephine’s Son, and the mage who teleported her was a mage under the direct command of the 3rd Empress.
Leonard has imprisoned the 3rd Empress and is torturing both of them, while Benjamin is requesting clemency.
But regardless of the mage, Josephine’s Son has no connection whatsoever to the 3rd Empress. Something feels suspicious.
At the Innkeeper’s words, the people seated before her began to chime in one or two comments each.
“That Sixth Prince, who’s lost his mind over a woman, is only making our 3rd Empress and Prince Benjamin cry!”
“How could he throw the 3rd Empress into prison!! This is a declaration of war, war!”
“Is it really just because of a woman? The Emperor designated Benjamin as Crown Prince—imagine the jealousy that must burn.”
“That Prince Leonard has always been like this. Every decision he makes is cruel and cold.”
I suddenly felt a surge of emotion and wanted to object, but judging by the rumors alone, they were right.
‘The 3rd Empress imprisoned? Does it really need to go that far? Torture as well?’
Was my mind too innocent? Or was Blake simply like this normally…?
Hungry as I was, even broccoli had tasted like heavenly delicacy, but suddenly it just tasted like broccoli again.
“…Cedric, let’s return quickly. At this rate, Leonard will do something else and earn a reputation as a tyrant.”
“Yes.”
But then.
“…It would be better not to return?”
A soft voice tinged with laughter came from beside me. It was the Hooded Woman.
Cedric drew his sword, and as I jumped to my feet, the woman laughed again.
“Ah, please don’t be too startled. I don’t have two lives, and I have no intention of harming the Prince’s Consort.”
“…Who are you? Remove your hood.”
At Cedric’s rough tone, the woman pulled her hood down even further.
“I’m also someone who would find it rather troublesome if my identity became known. And yet, I’ve come to meet you two directly.”
“You knew we were here? How?”
“Half chance, half intention.”
Then the woman pulled something from her hood’s pocket.
“That’s the necklace I gave to Mark?”
“To give something that proves your identity to just anyone—aren’t you being rather foolish?”
“…!”
Without thinking, I bit the soft flesh inside my mouth as the woman tucked the necklace away again.
“Of course, I understand how displeasing it must be to be treated as equal to our elder sister, but that’s precisely why you’ve been caught by me.”
“…You said you don’t have two lives, yet your words carry quite a bite.”
“…”
“‘Elder sister,’ you say?”
At my question, the woman rose from her seat.
“Your Highness, please follow me. The Empire’s most beautiful rose, Rosalian, awaits you.”

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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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