Bloodline is a Cheat Code - Chapter 32

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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 32
Eyes disguised behind a blue gaze regarded Vincent quietly.
Vincent’s crimson eyes met Lucian’s, swirling with conflicting emotions, before closing shut. He rose from his seat and strode purposefully toward the door.
“We’ll continue this conversation another time. You’ve failed to bring an appropriate topic.”
“I shall endeavor to provide advance notice next time, Your Highness.”
After Lucian’s farewell—more curt than courteous—Vincent even rejected the servant’s assistance, opening the door with his own hand.
“Oh.”
Beyond the threshold stood Elian, walking toward her room with medicine she’d prepared for me.
Elian, did it have to be that exact moment?
It must have been.
She’d believed she could slip past without being noticed, given the typical duration of noble conversations.
Nobility had their standard timeframes for such discussions, after all.
That the exchange between brothers would be cut short to less than half that time was a variable I hadn’t anticipated.
“…Your Highness the Crown Prince. I greet you.”
But what could be done now that matters had unfolded this way?
Elian composed herself with perfect courtesy, as though she already knew precisely how to respond. She’d clearly imagined this contingency and prepared accordingly.
It was Vincent Crown Prince who had frozen instead.
He stood motionless, gripping the door handle as if turned to stone, utterly paralyzed.
“Eli…”
“I apologize for interrupting your conversation. I was merely fetching medicine for the young lady.”
Elian cut him off sharply, as though terrified his name might escape his lips.
She bore no resemblance to the woman who’d seemed so full of longing for him at first.
Yet her trembling hands and clenched jaw betrayed the truth—she was forcibly suppressing her emotions.
“Elian, His Highness the Crown Prince has concluded his business and intends to return to the Palace. You’re blocking his path, so please step aside.”
“Of course.”
I interjected smoothly, playing mediator, and Elian withdrew to the side.
“Your Highness, if you have anything to say to my maid, tell me directly.”
Vincent’s lips trembled.
With his gaze fixed on Elian, unable to move, it seemed as though time itself had stopped only for him.
One glance at his eyes revealed exactly how much emotion remained.
Yet realizing Elian was deliberately avoiding conversation, Vincent finally turned his head toward me.
“…She is the young lady’s maid?”
“Yes, remarkably capable. She’s as essential to me as my own limbs.”
Vincent Crown Prince clearly harbored feelings for Elian.
When I’d heard Elian’s account in passing, she’d claimed he’d dismissed her as merely a fleeting encounter.
“Would a man of his station remember a country girl’s face? Not her name, nor even her hair color.”
“Yet I remember clearly the voice that told me he loved me.”
“Even if he’s forgotten me, I cannot forget him.”
Elian, you were wrong.
Looking at that face, such words could never be true.
Those eyes, which had always been as lonely and cold as death itself, were now rippling with thousands of emotions—unless one was a fool.
“Young lady, how much longer do you intend to stay at the Prince’s Palace?”
In that moment of asking, I saw not the Crown Prince, but simply Vincent—the man who had spent his days with Elian.
As if I would be foolish enough to fall for that face!
“I merely came to enjoy tea time, but since Your Highness has graced us with his presence, I suppose I must defer my visit to another occasion. Especially given that it’s raining.”
Lucian Advein, now making no effort to conceal his displeasure, added his own words.
Only then did a flicker of realization cross Vincent’s face.
“My apologies. I shall take my leave.”
“Whoever serves as Your Highness’s eyes and ears, I assure you they will have their limbs severed within this palace before another day passes.”
Lucian Advein spoke with a smile, his tone utterly casual as he addressed his brother’s retreating back.
That was far too terrifying a thing to have heard.
No matter how formidable Lucian Advein was, or how legitimate his bloodline, the fact remained that he was the third prince with no actual power.
Yet he spoke such brazen words directly to the Crown Prince’s back without hesitation?
“Your Highness, if I may be so bold—”
“Hmm? Yes. Wait a moment.”
Lucian Advein, whose gaze had naturally turned toward me, suddenly reached out his hand with surprising speed.
The moment the Crown Prince vanished from sight, my strength gave way and I dropped the medicine tray, but Lucian Advein caught all the falling medicine safely and let out a sigh.
“I don’t know the full circumstances, but it seems she was pushed to her mental limits.”
“I… I didn’t realize she was in such dire straits.”
Despite my best efforts to help, she had fainted from the sheer tension—I hadn’t expected it to be this severe.
“She’s merely unconscious, so don’t worry too much, young lady. You there, move this maid somewhere she can rest. And make sure everyone keeps quiet about what just happened.”
A few of the servants quietly nodded and carried Elian away.
Haeston, who had been standing nearby the whole time, let out a deep sigh.
“But severing limbs seems a bit extreme, doesn’t it? The prince just told me to gather information, so I’ve been risking my life playing the villain, but if I’d known all the time and effort I’ve devoted to His Highness would end in death, I would have—”
“So, young lady, you have no intention of telling me what that maid and my brother are to each other?”
“Your Highness, I am telling you right now. And when Lady Flotie asked why she had come, I struggled so hard to weave a natural explanation—”
“Until now, I regarded it as a remnant of the past and saw no need to speak of it, but it seems it cannot remain in the past. I shall tell Your Highness everything without reservation. The rain should clear by the time our conversation concludes.”
“Are you ignoring me as well, young lady?”
* * *
Even I took quite some time to hear the full story from Elian, but in truth, when summarized, it was a remarkably simple tale.
Two people in love were kept apart by their stations, yet they found each other again in an unfortunate reunion—such a common romance.
“Can you believe what I’m about to tell you?”
Lucian Advein nodded as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
“If I had any intention of doubting your words, I would have cast you out from that tavern in the first place. I don’t choose my allies so lightly.”
“Of course, I trust you as well, Your Highness.”
Though Elian hasn’t yet regained consciousness, I’m certain she would understand.
I will protect what you’re trying to guard and speak carefully, so don’t worry—I whispered this in my heart to the sleeping girl.
“Elian is not a maid I received through someone’s recommendation or whom someone brought to me. One winter, as I was passing by in a carriage, I found her freezing to death after days without food, and I took her in.”
“A compassionate heart.”
“It simply caught my eye.”
Naturally, anyone would find it suspicious if I were dying alongside a child who so clearly bore the blood of the Imperial Household.
This was far removed from my gentle nature, but it wasn’t an misunderstanding worth correcting, so I continued my explanation as it was.
In a certain Baronial Territory, Elian—once a pure country girl—encountered a man one day whose escape was written all over him.
His disheveled appearance, clothes caked with dirt in every direction, suggested he’d barely fled with nothing but the clothes on his back, yet the quality of the fabric and his carefully maintained features proved he was no ordinary nobleman’s son.
‘He’s handsome enough that you can’t forget him once you’ve seen him—quite the feat to have fled all the way out here to the countryside. Still, I should just let this pass. Getting tangled up with the highborn only shortens your life.’
Like tenant farmers and their children, Elian’s sole purpose was to live each day quietly and without incident.
Had I not seen his expression as we passed each other, things might have gone as Elian intended.
If only she’d possessed just a little more callousness—enough to turn away from Vincent’s expression and keep walking—her life might never have come to this point.

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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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