Bloodline is a Cheat Code - Chapter 55

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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 55
“Who is that person?”
“They said he’s a duke?”
“He looks incredibly young though.”
“No, he’s still the heir, I think. The Young Duke. Supposedly from the strongest family in the Empire.”
“So if he marries that woman, he becomes a duke? Man, those good-looking ones sure have it made.”
“What are you talking about? If he marries her, he’d just be the duke’s husband while the title stays with her. The guy’s stuffy and narrow-minded on top of it. Look at him—he probably breathes dark magic through his nostrils.”
Serpina Rosena turned her gaze toward the direction of the conversation with a peculiar expression.
A young girl who had been vehemently protesting against the man whose neck was about to be severed startled at the feeling of Serpina’s gaze and quickly lowered her head.
“Ha ha…”
Serpina found herself laughing softly without meaning to.
‘Come to think of it, there was someone who said something like that to me. That if I reclaimed my ducal seat and married all of them, I would become the most powerful duke in history with the most husbands ever recorded.’
I deliberately erased the faces of those three men who showed no resistance whatsoever to the idea of having multiple husbands and becoming one among them. There was no point in thinking such things while on my way to see one of them.
‘I won’t let them fall in love again.’
I would never let them sacrifice their lives for my sake again. My revenge was already accomplished, and now there were people I needed to protect.
Serpina’s heart was resolute. After all, I had never abandoned love—I simply never erased my memories.
‘Sister.’
As long as Flotie’s gentle voice still echoed across this land, they would not need to be used for my misfortune. Not just those men, but all the connections I had made.
The Holy Kingdom was a land that left fragmented memories in me.
After losing everything and secluding myself in the Magic Tower, it was the first place I set foot in the world. There, I met countless people.
I met men who said they loved me, and I met someone I loved. I made promises of a future with them.
Some told me to reclaim my ducal seat, others suggested running far away to live happily, and some promised to follow me wherever I wished to go.
‘What if I still don’t know what I want?’
‘We’ll be with you until you find it. Seri.’
I quietly recalled the faces of those who had stayed with me until the very end of my revenge. I had incurred a debt to them that I could never repay.
“Young Duke, you seem lost in thought. Why, are there really so many voices speaking ill of you?”
It wasn’t particularly rare for Serpina to remain silent, but Lucian Advein seemed bothered by the atmosphere around them and casually broached the subject.
He had an almost eerie, ghostlike perceptiveness at times. Serpina briefly reconsidered whether her expression had seemed odd, then firmly denied it.
“No, sir. I was simply remembering old times.”
“You’re welcome to unburden yourself to me as much as you like, but if you speak of such things to others, it will make it seem as though you smuggled yourself into the Holy Kingdom as a child. Be careful. And if such a thing actually happened, don’t tell me about it. I absolutely despise complicated stories.”
It was his way of saying that whatever sins I might have committed in a past life were none of his concern, and he would pretend not to have heard.
At Lucian’s consideration hidden beneath his glib manner, Serpina let out another hollow laugh. Where on earth had he learned such a cunning attitude?
I wished I had learned more about Lucian Advein in my previous life. Even Aden Advein had never told me much about him back then.
‘I still dream of Flotie. I could do anything to protect my sister. But that child is no longer in this world, and all I can do is have nightmares and beg her forgiveness.’
‘Seri, what could you possibly have done wrong?’
On the nights when I couldn’t sleep at all, those who kept vigil by my side never grew weary of my hysterical outbursts.
No matter how many times I repeated the same anguished cries over the same pain, they accepted it as natural, waited patiently, and when I woke from my nightmares, they merely whispered that they were there beside me.
‘Aden, say something too. You’ve played the role of a younger brother and you have a sister, so you should be able to comfort me. I only have an older sister, so I don’t know.’
‘Seri, your heart—that you would do anything for your sister. I understand it. I know this will feel like deception to you, but…’
Aden Advein, the Emperor’s brother and the man I loved, spoke those words.
And his older brother, Lucian Advein, who had secluded himself during that time. After Vincent became Emperor, Lucian vanished from the Empire as if it were all a lie.
The day the Rosena Duchy disappeared was the last day he was ever seen.
In that moment, Serpina Rosena could not contain her fury, yet she could neither strike Aden nor curse him—because of the countless emotions etched across his face.
And because of what he had said.
‘Seri, I abandoned the Empire to protect my younger brother. So I have no right to be angry at the fact that you destroyed it.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘If an opportunity ever comes to turn back time, we will absolutely help you. Then let’s save your younger brother, Seri. And this time, not me but… it would be better to seek help from my younger sibling. That child is more capable than me or Vincent…’
Lucian Advein rolled his eyes uncomfortably, as if Serpina Rosena’s gaze was becoming too burdensome.
“Why are you like that?”
“No, I simply recalled something I heard said about Your Highness somewhere. I was trying to remember the exact ending.”
“What criticism have you heard about me now.”
“They said you possess the qualities of a sovereign more than anyone else. So it would be acceptable to seek your aid.”
At Serpina Rosena’s calm words, Lucian Advein’s expression momentarily went blank. Jade Delpoi, who followed beside her, wore much the same look.
She neither offered explanation nor added commentary, simply quickening her pace in silence.
* * *
“I bow before the eternal light of the Holy Kingdom.”
White hair and pallid skin, and eyes of such transparent blue they reflected everything like a mirror.
King Melicia’s green eyes regarded him without emotion. Everyone held their breath in tension, for this was a meeting between an imperial prince and the king of the Holy Kingdom, whose power was steadily expanding.
Nothing would evoke Pertona. What followed was a businesslike response—neither warm nor particularly cold.
“It is an honor that you would visit despite the arduous journey. I hope your stay brings you peaceful moments.”
King Melicia smiled faintly. Lucian Advein, who had respectfully kissed the back of the king’s hand, straightened his posture.
Unlike Pertona, the palace where King Melicia—possessed of formidable divine power—resided was suffused with a sanctity reminiscent of a temple.
‘Dark magic cannot even scrape the bones here.’
While Jade Delpoi stood lost in thought, a voice rang out from the doorway.
“The youngest lady of the Rosena Family, Flotie, requests an audience.”
* * *
“I am deeply sorry. I am Flotie of the Rosena Family. I should have assisted His Highness the Crown Prince, but my incompetence prevented me from doing so.”
Though I had come prepared to grovel, no solution came to mind. I would simply have to die—by my own will.
To preserve these diplomatic relations, death was my only choice.
The moment I arrived, I prostrated myself and began by begging forgiveness for my failure.
How could I appear later than Lucian Advein, the very center of this situation? I, who should have made him shine brighter than anyone else.
Even after receiving the king’s permission for an audience, I kept my head bowed, waiting for the reproach that would come my way.
From what I had heard, King Melicia’s temperament was inherently gentle.
They said he was so upright that one might say it was only natural for him to keep his heart pure, since before being a king, he was a saint who received God’s word and was bound to preserve life. Indeed, Pertona, who had been the Second Empress, was also said to have been kind.
Yet precisely because of such virtue, he might not easily overlook such a mistake.
Those who are strict with themselves sometimes apply the same standards to others. And besides, right now I have nothing to say even if I had ten mouths.

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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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