For the heart - Chapter 31

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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 31

 

Nina, who was about to leave the Maryeonso, stopped in her tracks.

 

Then she approached Kushis, who was still bound at all four limbs and hanging in midair.

 

“Grrr…”

 

The monster’s clouded gray-white eyes stared blankly into the void. Its breathing was weak, only producing low growls without strength.

 

As Nina drew closer and closer to Kushis, Casian followed.

 

Blood that had flowed from Kushis pooled thickly on the floor, filling the air with a strong metallic stench.

 

Nina’s eyes were fixed on the monster’s chest, which Desmorak had torn open earlier to extract the heart.

 

The wounds had healed completely, as if the torn flesh that had bled profusely and the bones that had broken with sickening sounds had all been a lie.

 

Nina reached out and placed her hand over Kushis’s heart.

 

She felt nothing beneath the short, red fur.

 

Nina turned her head to look at the box where Desmorak had placed the heart earlier.

 

Inside it, the heart was still beating as if it were alive.

 

“Back then, Baraguz didn’t have a heart either…”

 

Now she seemed to understand why it hadn’t died even when her sword pierced it.

 

“Let’s go now, Your Highness.”

 

Nina kept her hand on the monster’s chest while staring at that heart. Then slowly, she gently parted the monster’s short fur.

 

Her fingertips trembled finely.

 

The moment the monster’s scar came into view.

 

“Gasp.”

 

“Your Highness!”

 

Her breath caught in her throat.

 

A violent shock struck her mind.

 

Casian quickly caught Nina’s swaying body and supported her.

 

Nina’s blue eyes were shaking with shock and despair.

 

“It’s the same.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“The scar carved on my chest… it’s the same.”

 

* * *

 

Thud.

 

Nina, who had returned to the Satellite Palace, collapsed weakly onto the bed.

 

‘It was definitely a thorned chain pattern.’

 

On Kushis’s chest, exactly the same mark as the scar remaining on her own chest was clearly carved.

 

“Desmorak… tore out my heart.”

 

Why on earth would the Emperor’s sorcerer have removed the princess’s heart?

 

And why did father and mother…

 

“There’s no one in the world without a heart.”

 

“I’m different from other people.”

 

“Well. You definitely have a heart. If you believe that… someone deceived you.”

 

“What…?”

 

“Or, you were deceived.”

 

What Casian had said to her on the day they first met was right.

 

Her parents had deceived her, and she had been deceived.

 

The oracle was false, and being born without a heart was also false.

 

‘They even tore out my heart to make the false oracle true.’

 

Nina buried her face in her hands.

 

Though her parents had never shown her affection, the fact that they had even removed her heart brought waves of wretchedness.

 

‘Why… was it me?’

 

Why was it her among the twins?

 

Did they really need a war weapon princess with an immortal body to dedicate herself to Arsed so desperately?

 

‘For continental unification?’

 

It wouldn’t be wrong to say she had lived all this time for the continental unification that her father so desperately desired.

 

Nina lowered her hands from her buried face and gasped for breath.

 

“Then where is my heart?”

 

In Nina’s mind, only the moment when Desmorak tore out Kushis’s heart kept repeating.

 

The image of him struggling but chanting spells to the end to extract it while still alive.

 

“It failed.”

 

Nina suddenly stood up and headed to the mirror. Then she stared at her own eyes.

 

Unlike the monster’s clouded eyes from the spell, hers were a brilliantly clear blue.

 

Perhaps Desmorak and her parents had tried to cast a spell on her, just like they did on the monsters, to use her thoroughly as Arsed’s war weapon.

 

Without reason, to only listen to their words.

 

She recalled the heart that had been beating perfectly fine even inside the box.

 

Though nothing had been clearly revealed, it became certain that her heart was beating somewhere.

 

‘To find my heart, what should I do?’

 

Nina fought off the overwhelming sense of helplessness and gathered her thoughts.

 

What they wanted was for the truth to remain buried like this.

 

Nina turned around and opened a drawer to take out what she had stored inside.

 

It was the portrait of the Saint that Casian had given her during the day.

 

“First, I need to find the Saint.”

 

Nina pulled out a dark hood from the wardrobe, put it on, and tucked the portrait inside her clothes before leaving the Satellite Palace again.

 

* * *

 

The next afternoon.

 

Tila brought Nina’s dress uniform to the reception room.

 

It was the outfit Nina would wear to tonight’s banquet.

 

“They should have held a banquet long ago. Just how many countries has our Princess conquered in the meantime?”

 

She meticulously smoothed out the wrinkles in the red cloak Nina would wear, while snorting like someone boiling with indignation.

 

“After suffering through conquests and returning, instead of banquets, they made her do sword competitions, monster battles, and other blood-curdling tasks. I guess they’ve finally come to their senses.”

 

The Emperor, the Empress, Princess Lillien. To Tila, they were just people who tormented Nina.

 

She only used minimal honorifics, and when she criticized them, Tila’s words were unrestrained.

 

“Tila. But why is the Princess wearing a dress uniform to the banquet? Won’t she wear a dress?”

 

Pieruto glanced toward the bedroom where Nina was and spoke.

 

“Ha! Pieruto. How is our Princess’s hair?”

 

“It’s incredibly beautiful. Though it’s short, when she stands by that window, it really sparkles like sunlight!”

 

Pieruto, who had been blowing on the charcoal for the iron, answered excitedly.

 

“Right?! Ever since she was young, whenever our Princess’s hair grew even a little longer, Princess Lillien would foam at the mouth. Something about how knights shouldn’t wear dresses even if they’re women?”

 

“What? That’s ridiculous!”

 

“Exactly! Where on earth did such nonsense come from! This is all a measure born from jealousy of our Princess’s beauty. Hmph, it’s useless anyway. Just wait and see. How magnificent our Princess will look when she wears this uniform! Hehe.”

 

Tila was excited because it seemed like Nina was finally receiving proper treatment after so long.

 

* * *

 

Nina walked to the Main Palace in time for the banquet.

 

At dawn, Nina had personally visited ‘Edma’, the Information Guild she had been secretly commissioning work from.

 

“Find the person in this portrait as quickly as possible. There’s someone who says they saw her near the Velan Duchy recently.”

 

“Since we have a portrait, we should be able to find her quickly. We’ll contact you.”

 

Everything had started with a false oracle.

 

So if she met the Saint and heard the truth, she might be able to find clues about her heart.

 

Though her mind was complicated, her reason was settling more coldly than ever.

 

“Commander.”

 

“Bern.”

 

The person who approached Nina as she walked lost in thought was Bern, dressed up nicely.

 

Wearing a dark navy double-button jacket with a white high-neck collar, he exuded the feeling of nobility.

 

Bern’s neck reddened as he looked at Nina, who wore a pearl-colored blouse with abundant frills and a cloak with ornate silver embroidery on the shoulders.

 

It had been a long time since he’d seen Nina in anything other than blood-soaked battle gear or her knight commander uniform.

 

“Ahem, you look magnificent today.”

 

“You too.”

 

Even at Nina’s formal short response, a smile spread across Bern’s face.

 

“Since it’s a banquet where all the staff officers were invited, everyone seems excited for the first time in a while. Honestly, there have been complaints about feeling left out for some time.”

 

Nina just nodded silently.

 

Compared to the tremendous contributions they had made to the Empire, celebratory banquets for the knighthood could be counted on one hand.

 

Even those were more about the nobles who had remained in the Imperial Palace and capital sharing the glory, rather than highlighting Nina and the knighthood.

 

The truth was, her heart had been heavy thinking that the knighthood she led was receiving such treatment because of her being treated like a war machine.

 

“Once we conquer the remaining Six Small Nations, you’ll truly have achieved continental unification, Commander.”

 

“It’s not me, but the Arsed Order that will accomplish it.”

 

In the past, she would have attributed all the credit to the Emperor, but now she didn’t feel like doing so.

 

After all, it was the knighthood that had suffered greatly to conquer the continent, and her own body that had been broken thousands of times.

 

Bern looked pleased at Nina’s answer and glanced at her face slyly.

 

“When continental unification is complete… I’m thinking of retiring from service.”

 

Nina nodded as if she had already expected this.

 

He was the second son of the Hydrick Count Family.

 

However, everyone knew that since the eldest son was sickly, Bern would have to inherit the title.

 

“The heir of Hydrick has risked his life on the battlefield for years. I’ll do everything in my power to ensure you can retire honorably.”

 

It was the best answer she could give as a commander, but it wasn’t what he wanted to hear.

 

“After I receive the count title, I want to get married.”

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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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