Aya Ran Away - Chapter 30

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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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Chapter 30
Though a room had been prepared for her and Nahal no longer used his bedchamber, she was granted not a corner room in Byeol Palace but an entire palace of her own near Ben Palace.
‘Three meals served promptly, attendants helping with my bath, no one to scold me, no whispered slander to overhear… and beyond that…’
As Aya’s thoughts wandered, she settled on what pleased her most: that Nahal occasionally came to check on her welfare.
Busy though the times were, he never failed to visit and ask after her health at least once every three or four days.
He would come with no other business in mind, asking only about her wellbeing and her daily routine.
After she had fallen ill a few times in his presence, he had begun to treat her like an invalid.
He would see to her needs meticulously, then dispatch the servants with stern instructions before disappearing.
He had eventually reinstated a governess for Yesili, and it seemed his attentiveness had only deepened since then.
On days he could not visit in person, he sent his subordinates to inquire after her.
Thanks to this, Aya had grown reasonably acquainted with Bardal, the man Nahal trusted most.
She wondered where such tenderness came from in him.
Nahal was the first person—she swore to it—who had ever concerned himself with her wellbeing so carefully.
“Have you been well?”
Today was no different.
Nahal had come without warning, asking after her and studying her expression.
“You have wanted for nothing?”
Even though Imrabel had become Deposed King and her status as princess had become no more than paper, Nahal unfailingly used formal speech when addressing her.
He had never spoken to her without courtesy.
Though Aya had gestured for him to stop, waving her hand to indicate he needn’t do so, whether he failed to understand or had other reasons, he continued to address her that way.
“I shall instruct the servants, but should any difficulty arise, you are welcome to seek me out directly.”
Nahal explained to her the way to his office.
Aya nodded slowly, tracing the route in her mind’s eye.
Thanks to him, she had managed to learn the precise location of the office—a place she had never set foot in even when her father was alive.
Just as Nahal seemed about to leave, offering his farewell, she caught hold of his sleeve.
She raised her hand and made a gesture of drinking tea.
Nahal looked down at her quietly, then shook his head.
“There are matters I have left unfinished. Should you extend an invitation another day, I shall be pleased to accept.”
Yet he had never once accepted.
She knew how busy he was every day, but to say she felt no disappointment would be a lie.
Aya felt her fingertips grow cold where his gaze fell upon them.
After exchanging farewells, Nahal promptly left the room.
From his retreating figure, she sensed not a trace of reluctance to leave.
Aya thought that Nahal would likely remain kind and tender, but would never truly offer her his presence.
It was only natural.
She was the legacy of the Deposed King, and Nahal had merely taken her in out of pity, as an obligation thrust upon him.
‘To expect anything more would be a luxury.’
Her circumstances were better than before.
There was no exhaustion, and life had become comfortable.
And as he had promised earlier, Nahal did not neglect her as a husband.
It was surely more than her due.
Yet despite this, though it might sound ungrateful, Aya felt a lack.
She found herself thinking increasingly of his Benefactor.
Perhaps the Benefactor occupied the largest and most intense place in his heart.
Nahal had said it was different from the love between spouses, but was it truly?
‘What if the Benefactor were a woman who fell in love with Nahal at first sight and wished to become his wife?’
Would he refuse?
Even now, there were two women who could potentially become his wife: herself and Chipor.
Aya sometimes felt jealousy even toward Chipor, who had nothing to do with Nahal at the moment.
She knew this even though Chipor did not love Nahal and was even being prepared to marry another man of her choosing later.
‘I don’t want to become petty.’
She had never been like this before.
‘But he keeps giving me hope.’
His kindness toward her encouraged it.
There had truly been a time when she was never like this.
She had never harbored such longing.
Aya felt a premonition that she would spend her whole life yearning for something in vain.
“Your Highness.”
While Aya was lost in such thoughts, her governess called to her through the slightly open door.
As she turned her head and walked toward the entrance, the governess leaned close and spoke in a hushed voice.
“They say they’re going to bury His Highness’s remains.”
When she heard “His Highness” and “remains,” it seemed clear the nurse was no longer speaking of a king, but of a dead man.
Aya’s biological father.
Confronted by this unexpected revelation, Aya’s expression hardened.
She still believed that “it” could not die by any ordinary human means.
Then whose body was the nurse speaking of?
“Still, surely you ought to pay your respects as he departs for the last time?”
At the nurse’s words, Aya began to shake her head, then hesitated.
‘I need to see it myself.’
Since the body had been left unattended, its condition would surely be poor.
Yet once she saw it with her own eyes, she might still glean some trace, some fragment of evidence.
Aya gave a small nod, and the nurse’s eyes grew grave with understanding.
“I’ll come for you tonight.”
* * *
After dinner and a bath, Aya had changed into her nightclothes and lay in bed.
The candle beside her bedside flickered.
Then the door eased open and the nurse’s voice drifted in.
“Princess.”
At her name, Aya rose slowly and reached for the walking cane she’d set beside the bed.
The nurse approached and draped a long robe around her shoulders.
“This way, if you please.”
The nurse led on, and Aya followed.
Moving through the palace in the dead of night while everyone slept, she felt as though she were committing some transgression.
The nurse passed through the colonnade and crossed the garden.
Aya labored to keep pace with her hurried steps.
After a long walk, they came to rest in a garden that Aya knew well.
It was the place she’d loved most during her time at Byeol Palace, a garden touched by memories of Nahal.
‘Why here, of all places?’
She sensed a damp, creeping malice in the choice.
‘If the “King” had been watching over all of it… what if….’
Aya shook her head, cutting off the thought.
That wasn’t what mattered now.
First, she needed to see the body with her own eyes.
And yet, despite that resolve, she couldn’t shake the unsettling feeling that filth had been splattered across one of her few beautiful memories.
Aya furrowed her brow and let out a shallow sigh.
As they rounded the thicket, an open wooden coffin came into view.
“You came too.”
At the voice near her, Aya turned with a start—it was Chipor, standing there.
She too appeared to have arrived with an attendant.
Chipor seized Aya’s hand and pulled her forward.
“Father….”
Sorrow trembled in Chipor’s voice.
Aya was bewildered.
She’d believed Chipor had formed no bond with the king, yet now her half-sister looked profoundly grief-stricken.
Aya glanced at her in shock.
After a long moment, Aya moved slowly toward the coffin to achieve the purpose of her visit, and examined the body inside.
Part of her didn’t want to look.
But she had to confirm it with her own eyes.
‘Ah.’
As she’d suspected.
Aya felt her blood run cold.
The “King” was not in the coffin.
Inside the wooden coffin lay the corpse of an ordinary man.
“Ahhh… Your Highness,” the nurse murmured, using a title that should not have been spoken.
Everyone seemed to believe him to be the “King.”
The body retrieved from the water and left in the garden bore enough recognizable features that the others could identify it as him.
So the others had identified him and accepted him as the “King.”
But Aya could tell.
‘This is not him.’

It had shed its skin and fled.

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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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