A Fortune-telling Princess - 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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It had been like this since childhood. That man accomplished with such ease what he had struggled to achieve.
The fellow who constantly shirked studying always had better grades than him. His swordsmanship was beyond comparison.
People always flocked around that thoughtless man.
“Why….”
Father’s attention, Mother’s love. And—
‘Even the people’s praise!’
All of it, everything belonged to Zeno.
And now even the Guardian Sword had chosen him.
‘I’m the older brother….’
I’m the firstborn!
Watching the sword show no response in his hands, he despaired once more.
“If only you didn’t exist….”
“….”
“If only you didn’t exist!”
In that instant, the blade thrust forward. Even knowing Zeno stood there.
Thunk!
The sword pierced his chest with terrifying ease.
“Mi, khail….”
Mikhail’s hands trembled as he drove the blade into his brother’s heart. Zeno staggered backward and tumbled down the Cliff.
“…!”
Only then did Mikhail’s senses return, and he collapsed where he stood. The Guardian Sword still hung in his hands.
The Guardian Sword, now cold and lifeless, having lost its master.
* * *
“The person who died back then wasn’t the older brother Mikhail, but the younger brother Zeno, right?”
That’s the only way everything makes sense.
Why he, despite being the one who found the Guardian Sword, wasn’t chosen by it.
Why the head of the Jebillen Family wanders the Training Grounds looking pierced through by the blade.
All of this becomes explained.
[That’s right.]
Zeno nodded immediately, as expected.
[I was the one who died back then. Not my brother.]
“But why….”
No one witnessed what happened at the Cliff where he went to find the Guardian Sword.
There was no reason Mikhail would need to impersonate Zeno and return.
He could have simply claimed he found the sword himself.
‘But why?’
Why did he abandon his own name and pretend to be Zeno?
[It’s a punishment he imposed on himself.]
“A punishment?”
[How do you think it feels to hear the name of the person you killed for the rest of your life?]
Everyone calls him by that man’s name.
[He chose that for himself.]
So that he would never forget the sin he committed in his lifetime, could never forget it.
In a fleeting moment, consumed by terrible rage, Mikhail of the Jebillen Family bore the price of that murder for the rest of his life.
“Is that even possible?”
Even if they were twins, surely not….
Camilla asked with a face that showed she couldn’t understand.
“How could someone live as a different person their entire life?”
And no one noticed this?
[Father knew.]
“…!”
As expected.
No matter how alike they were, it made no sense that even their parents couldn’t tell their children apart.
[But he stayed silent.]
One son was already dead, and only one son had returned alive.
Zeno’s father remained silent. He must have suspected everything, but he couldn’t afford to lose his remaining son as well.
[And there was that one-year gap.]
A year had passed since Zeno and Mikhail left home to find the sword. A year that was short if you thought of it one way, long if you thought of it another.
Even if the person who returned home had changed somewhat in personality or behavior, it would be easy to overlook such differences.
[Isn’t it amusing? My dead name has never been forgotten for so long, while Mikhail’s name, the one who actually lived, has completely disappeared.]
Zeno laughed bitterly.
Zeno—or rather, Mikhail—who returned home after finding the sword, had been an excellent family head.
He had deep respect from others, always showed goodwill to people, and led the family better than anyone. Even now, after all these years, many praised him.
Only under the name Zeno, not Mikhail.
The expression on Zeno’s face as he brought up the past was very calm. There was no anger to be found at all.
[At first, I felt wronged, resentful, and angry.]
As if reading Camilla’s thoughts, Zeno smiled faintly and continued.
[I cursed Mikhail and spewed endless curses, asking why I had to be the one to die.]
But….
‘Zeno has returned!’
‘Thank goodness Zeno is alive.’
‘What would we have done if something had happened to Zeno as well.’
Even before Mikhail revealed himself as Zeno, the people naturally welcomed the one who returned alive as Zeno.
Grateful that it was Mikhail who died, not Zeno.
That was when I understood.
‘Yes, Mikhail is dead.’
[I couldn’t hate him any more than that.]
What kind of gazes and words Mikhail had been surrounded by his entire life.
‘Why is it you again!’
Why he had directed such resentful words at me, who had found the Guardian’s Sword.
[I believe that man has paid his dues sufficiently.]
Mikhail had lived his entire life under that name, and I harbored no hatred toward him anymore. If anything, I felt a strange compassion for him.
[A fool.]
How could I despise someone who died without ever revealing the truth, even to his own child, clinging to a false name until the very end?
[Much time has passed as well.]
“That’s true enough.”
Camilla nodded lightly.
Time was a force of remarkable power—capable of erasing even the deepest rage.
Yet one question still lingered in my mind.
“Then why do you remain here still?”
Mikhail had been dead for ages, and there was no lingering resentment or anger toward him. So why did he insist on staying in this place?
As I regarded him with puzzlement, Zeno broke into a grin.
[I love the sword.]
“…?”
[I love the sword far too much to leave.]
His gaze drifted once more toward the Training Grounds.
[I’ve never truly wielded it.]
“Pardon?”
What nonsense was this….
This was a man hailed as a sword genius, the very architect of the Jebillen Family’s swordsmanship.
A figure legendary for never releasing the blade from his grip since first taking it up—and yet he claimed to have never truly wielded it?
At my incredulous expression, Zeno stretched his arms overhead in a languid gesture and answered.
[Because I had no worthy opponent.]
His voice carried the innocent certainty of one stating an obvious truth, like “the sun rises in the east.”
[There was no human alive who could stand against me.]
“Wow….”
How infuriating.
Even more infuriating because I couldn’t refute him.
Sword Master—the title bestowed upon those who reached the pinnacle of the blade.
Zeno had achieved this impossible rank at the unbelievable age of nineteen.
Even Zeno’s father, who had been the head of the Jebillen Family at the time, was no Sword Master. So his lament about never having truly wielded his blade was undoubtedly the truth.
‘Sword Masters aren’t exactly common… wait?’
Hold on.
‘They’re not common, right?’
A face suddenly came to mind.
And then another, and another, and another… wait?
‘…There are quite a few?’
Among the people living under this roof alone, there were two of them.
“….”
Camilla exhaled a long sigh as she watched Zeno gaze wistfully at those still wielding their blades.
Sigh, such is my fate.
[Why? Is there something on my face? Well, handsomeness is certainly smeared all over it—]
“Please spare me the unfunny dad jokes.”
Camilla rose slowly from her seat.
I knew full well this was something I’d regret, but…
“Zeno.”
[Hm?]
“Care to swing a sword properly for once?”
[…What?]
If I let this slide and pretend not to notice, it’ll keep gnawing at me anyway.
* * *
“A sparring match?”
“Yes.”
Upon returning home, Camilla requested a sparring match. With whom?
“…With you?”
“Yes, with me.”
With Ludvil.
Camilla flashed a smile at her older brother, who stood there looking utterly bewildered.
Beside her, Zeno—who had followed her to Sorpel Mansion—examined Ludvil carefully.
[Wow, this guy’s impressive. This could be interesting. But will he actually accept your sparring request?]
Camilla affirmed Zeno’s question by rolling her head a few times as if stretching.
All three Dukes were Masters, and Arsian was said to be nearly at that level. Petro was the same.
Surrounded by Masters or prospective Masters, there was a specific reason why she’d asked Ludvil instead.
‘Because he won’t treat my words as a joke.’
He was someone who never let any words pass carelessly.
Even now, while others would have scoffed or been taken aback, Ludvil’s expression merely hardened as he fell into quiet contemplation.
“Why?”
“Yes?”
“What’s your reason for wanting to spar with me?”
“I want to test my limits.”
Since it was a question she’d already anticipated, Camilla answered immediately.
‘Limits, my foot.’
My limits would scatter like dust from a single swing of Ludvil’s blade.
Even she thought it was a ridiculous answer, but Ludvil took her words seriously once again.
“You could get hurt.”
“If someone holding a sword fears getting hurt, what’s the point?”
“….”
Ugh, when he looks at me with such seriousness, my conscience pricks relentlessly.
Regardless of what churned inside, Camilla’s expression remained composed.
“…Fine.”
In the end, permission fell from Ludvil’s lips.
Shortly after, the two of them made their way to the Training Grounds, which stood empty now that all practice had concluded.
When Camilla entered the Training Grounds with her sword in hand, Ludvil had already finished his preparations and stood in the center of the arena.
Watching Ludvil stand there with his sword held naturally at his side, Camilla swallowed hard.
…Is this really going to be okay? I’m having serious second thoughts about stepping forward like this.
‘I must be insane, absolutely insane. What confidence did I have to start this, when I’m not even an exorcist….’
I must have lost my mind for a moment.
‘Have I always been this impulsive?’
I should have completely ignored Zeno’s gaze as he looked at the Training Grounds with such longing…!
“Zeno.”
Camilla called out to Zeno in a very soft voice. The water had already been spilled. And I was the one who spilled it willingly. It was too late to clean it up.
“Are you ready?”
[…I cannot refuse.]
Whoosh.
Zeno’s spirit entered the body.
“…Ah!”
In an instant, intense dizziness crashed over me. Simultaneously, all sensation in my body vanished.
From head to toe, nothing felt like it belonged to me.
‘Is this what it means to be possessed by a ghost?’
For Camilla, this was an experience unlike anything she had ever encountered.
She had often received help from the chef ghost Perol, but back then only his hands had been possessed. This was the first time her entire body had been taken over like this.
‘…He’s overjoyed.’
She could feel Zeno’s joy as he entered her body.
The delight of grasping a sword again. The exhilaration that the one standing before him was his Master.
All the emotions he felt flooded into her without reservation.
In an instant, Camilla—no, Zeno—rushed toward Ludvil and moved with absolute frenzy.
Crash!
With a single collision, Ludvil’s expression changed. Of course, Camilla was shocked as well.
‘This power came from my body?’
They say a possessed person’s strength is so great that multiple grown men cannot restrain it, yet this power was absolutely not something she could produce on her own.
“How do you know this swordsmanship….”
Recognizing the Jebillen Family’s sword technique, he cast a gaze filled with astonishment and bewilderment toward Camilla.
But that was all. Ludvil said nothing and focused entirely on the duel.
The sound of clashing blades began to echo throughout the Training Grounds.

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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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