For the heart - Chapter 26

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 26

 

* * *

 

Late at night, Casian sought out the dark training grounds.

 

Though his body was weary with fatigue, sleep would not come easily.

 

He walked quietly through the darkness without making a sound. As he moved forward with steady breaths, the corners of his mouth curved into a gentle arc.

 

It was because Nina’s face came to mind—the way she had burst into soft laughter when they sat gathered around the small table in the Satellite Palace.

 

“She didn’t even smile when I showed her the letter from the Margrave of Nortanica.”

 

Nina’s smiling face, seen in an unexpected moment, was so different from her emotionless expression that revealed nothing.

 

It was laughter that bloomed like a flower bud within her slightly lowered head.

 

How could the eyes and corners of the mouth on that impassive face curve so softly?

 

‘If she had armed herself with that smile instead of a sword, she might have already unified the entire continent and more.’

 

It could have melted anything, whether belief or person.

 

Casian felt his throat burn at that moment and gulped down his wine.

 

“This wine was also made personally by Tila, Your Highness.”

 

“Her Highness doesn’t like sweet things. It has quite a bitter taste, doesn’t it?”

 

They had certainly said it was bitter-tasting wine. Yet the wine that entered him spread with nothing but dizzying sweetness.

 

It was strange.

 

But the pleasant memory was brief, and as his steps continued, Casian exhaled heavily at the spreading recollections.

 

“Casian!!”

 

The image of Nina running toward him calling his name, then losing consciousness under the chandelier, was lodged in a corner of his heart.

 

Casian felt deep gratitude and regret toward Nina, but he hadn’t brought up that topic since that day.

 

Perhaps it was because it so vividly recalled that day from long ago—one he couldn’t forget even if he wanted to.

 

* * *

 

“Your Highness’s mother, Empress Dalianna, is a witch, isn’t she?”

 

“No! My mother is not a witch!”

 

“But everyone in the Imperial Palace says so. That Her Majesty the Empress is a witch.”

 

“She’s not! Mother is—”

 

Laurel, Serena Montregger’s attendant, cut off his words with snake-like gleaming eyes.

 

“Then prove it. They say in Crum Dungeon there’s a mystical orb that witches and those with witch’s blood can never obtain. A very luminous orb. If Your Highness brings that orb, everyone will believe that Her Majesty the Empress is not a witch.”

 

“Really? I’ll definitely bring it!”

 

It was the year Casian had just turned six.

 

At some point, Father had stopped coming to the Empress’s palace, and Mother, who waited for Father, grew thinner by the day.

 

But to speak ill of his mother, calling her a witch!

 

To prove it wasn’t true, young Casian ran to Crum Dungeon in the forest behind the Imperial Palace.

 

Though it was frightening as no light penetrated there, he thought it would be fine once he entered the cave since there would be a glowing orb inside.

 

But even as he crawled along the floor, groping his way deeper and deeper inside, no orb was visible, and young Casian became lost in that darkness.

 

And several hours later,

 

“Casian! Casian!!”

 

“M-Mother!!”

 

The pale-faced Empress appeared with flickering firelight in the distance.

 

“Casian!!”

 

Casian reached out his hand in delight.

 

But when he spotted a masked man behind his mother running toward him, he waved his hands frantically and screamed.

 

“Mother!! Behind you!!”

 

“Wh-who are you! I am the Empress of Montregger—”

 

“Hah. A lowly foreigner with no family to boast of. Do you still think you’re an empress just because you live in the Empress’s palace?”

 

The man slowly approached with a long sword pointed at the Empress.

 

She stepped backward while checking on her son.

 

“Wh-what do you want?”

 

“To cut the throats of you disgusting mother and son right here. That’s what she wants.”

 

She.

 

Though young, Casian knew the “she” he spoke of was Serena Montregger.

 

The one who had recently given birth to a son.

 

“Pl-please spare the child. We haven’t even seen your face. I’ll make sure the child never speaks of today’s events, I— No!”

 

But at that moment, the man raised his sword high, and the Empress pulled her son Casian into her arms.

 

“Ugh!”

 

As soon as her back was slashed, she who should have collapsed instead turned and lunged at the man.

 

“Mother!”

 

“Never my son!”

 

Thruuust—

 

But the long blade pierced straight through the Empress’s heart.

 

The sharpened blade protruded through her back as she stood.

 

“Mother!!”

 

The Empress’s head slowly turned toward her son who approached her.

 

Tears of blood flowed from her eyes, and clots of blood burst from her mouth with a gurgle.

 

“…Casian… My baby. You must never remember what happened today… *cough* And you must… you must survive and get out of here.”

 

“M-Mom…”

 

Casian saw red eyes that looked exactly like his own slowly trace over his face as if they would hold only him in their final moment.

 

“I’m so sorry. Your Highness will have to come along as well.”

 

The sword that had been embedded in the Empress was pulled out with a swoosh and flew toward Casian at that very moment.

 

“Kheuk—!!”

 

A man twice as large as the Empress let out a death rattle and collapsed forward.

 

Casian, who had lost consciousness on the spot, was discovered by the Imperial Knights several days later.

 

The Imperial Consort who had orchestrated all of this was flustered when Casian, whom she had assumed would surely be dead, returned alive.

 

But fortunately, Casian could barely remember that day, and from the shock, he suffered from mutism for two years.

 

The young prince who had lost his mother suffered from high fever for weeks. Everyone thought he would die soon.

 

However, Casian did not die.

 

On the day when the fever that had raged for weeks finally broke, the young prince realized that his body had changed from before, and he learned that what was coursing through his body was healing power.

 

The vivid memories of that day returned when he was sixteen.

 

He thought he understood why his mother had told him to forget the memories of that day.

 

Because those terrible memories had been tormenting him so much until now.

 

‘If only it weren’t for me… If only I hadn’t gone to that cave…’

 

If his father had continued to love his mother.

 

If he hadn’t given in to the nobles’ pleas and taken in an Imperial Consort.

 

If only that Imperial Consort’s family hadn’t been one with such tremendous power.

 

Following the guilt about his mother, what made Casian powerless for a while was being swept along by the power of Serena, who had newly become Empress.

 

And he realized what power was.

 

‘Without power, it’s as if you have nothing at all.’

 

His father’s passionate love for the woman of destiny who had saved his dying life lasted only four years.

 

Though it was an incident where an Empress of an empire was assassinated, the matter was sloppily concluded as something that happened due to the mistake of an Empress who had acted too hastily.

 

There wasn’t a single person in the Imperial Palace who tried to uncover who was behind the Empress’s murder.

 

This was because the Piblie Ducal House, which held the strongest power in Montregger that even the Emperor had to be mindful of, handled everything.

 

Despite his young age, Casian realized that all of it stemmed from power.

 

‘Even revenge requires power.’

 

That was the only thing left for him.

 

That’s why he absolutely had to become Arsed’s consort.

 

His purpose was so clear that there was nothing to deliberate about in any choice.

 

But where exactly was this reluctant feeling coming from?

 

Not once in his life had he ever treated the women who approached him emotionally.

 

They were merely used by Casian as means to an end.

 

Being swayed by such emotions that couldn’t even last four years toward the woman who had saved his life—such foolishness would never happen in his lifetime.

 

When emotions were removed from everything, nothing was difficult.

 

Like what he did with Lillien.

 

But though he couldn’t pinpoint it exactly, Nina kept making things difficult for him.

 

“Hah. What am I even thinking right now. Let me go back and get some sleep.”

 

The distance he had walked so far was not short.

 

When Casian walked for quite a while again and approached Maryeonso.

 

Creeeeak.

 

The door of Maryeonso opened and Desmorak came out.

 

Casian, who had already sensed his presence, had quickly hidden in the darkness.

 

Not thinking anyone would be there at this late hour, he simply closed the large iron door as usual.

 

And he moved the thick, faded leather notebook he had been carrying under his arm to his hand as he left the area.

 

Though it was just a moment in the dark surroundings, Casian saw the initials and pattern carved on the front of the notebook he was carrying.

 

It was all too familiar.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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