For the heart - Chapter 67

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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 67

Nina saw the Librarian with the same expressionless face as when she first entered.

‘Why…’

The list of books the Librarian had just read out were not the books she had read at all.

They were books she had never even glanced at, let alone taken out to look at.

Having finished reading the long list, the Librarian held his notebook to his chest as before and stepped back.

The Emperor’s face turned red and blue as he looked at the Librarian.

He turned his head to glare at Desmorak, who stood silently beside him.

The face that had been giving Nina a meaningful smile until the Librarian entered was now full of cracks.

“Librarian, you may leave now.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

As the Librarian left at the Emperor’s command, only heavy silence filled the study.

The Emperor, who had been grinding his teeth, suddenly turned his head toward Nina.

“You read such books?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Since when, since when have you been interested in such things?”

Nina answered in a calm voice.

“I’m planning to take an interest from now on. Continental unification has been achieved, and it seems there will be no more need for me to serve as a weapon of war.”

“…”

“Shouldn’t I also try living the life of an ordinary princess from now on?”

“Nonsense!”

“Why not? I sacrificed my body to achieve what Your Majesty desired most.”

“You, you…!”

“I have no intention of sacrificing myself for Arsed any longer.”

Words like a bombshell fell from Nina’s lips.

“What?! Are you saying you’ll defy the divine oracle!”

“Yes.”

“How dare you decide on your own!”

The Emperor jumped up from his seat and shouted. His wide eyes shook frantically.

The suspicions that had been sprouting in Rainer’s mind suddenly grew rapidly.

“The god disappeared from Arsed 20 years ago.”

Twenty years since you killed my parents and stole my heart.

“Having served the will of a vanished god for 20 years, I think that’s enough.”

Nina bowed her head to the Emperor who was trembling as he looked at her, then left the study.

From the Emperor, who was still glaring at the spot where Nina had been standing, came the sound of grinding teeth.

“That little thing dares… Desmorak.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“What was that monster captured and brought to Maryeonso called?”

“The strange bird, Neirak.”

* * *

After leaving the Emperor’s study, Nina headed straight to the Library.

As she pushed open the heavy wooden door and entered, the Librarian who had been organizing books turned his head.

Approaching Nina, he put down the dry cloth he was holding and bowed politely as usual.

“Have you come, Your Highness?”

“…Why did you do that?”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m asking why you recited a list of completely different books before His Majesty.”

The Librarian, who had been staring at Nina, picked up the dry cloth again and approached the bookshelf he had been organizing.

Nina followed him and asked once more.

“I’m asking why you did that.”

“Do you happen to know how long ago this Imperial Library was built, Your Highness?”

The Librarian asked something completely different instead of answering.

“The Former Emperor, who was the father of the current Emperor and His Majesty Magnus, expanded the original library to this larger size. That was already over 50 years ago.”

“…”

“I was appointed as the first librarian of this library built at that time, and I’ve been working here ever since.”

Nina’s eyes widened.

To think that one person had been managing this library from when it was built until now. It was surprising.

“I didn’t receive proper education, but I learned to read early and was fascinated by books. However, books were very precious over 50 years ago. So I had to steal glimpses of books at the bookstore.”

For the first time, the Librarian smiled as he told his story.

“Tolerance has its limits. The bookstore owner eventually couldn’t overlook the young man who kept secretly stealing glances at books. I was kicked out of the bookstore and beaten severely on the street, told never to come near again, when a noble boy of about ten years old jumped down from a carriage and stopped it.”

Nina listened quietly to his story.

“How can you beat a person so unreasonably!”

It was a clear voice that couldn’t hide its youth, but there was such dignity in that tone.

At that voice, the bookstore owner who had been beating me stopped his assault.

Then he glanced at the carriage and, upon confirming not just a noble family’s crest but the Imperial crest itself, was horrified and prostrated himself on the ground.

“Y-Your Highness! I didn’t beat him without reason! I couldn’t stand watching this fellow constantly come to my bookstore and secretly steal glances at precious books without buying any…”

“Is that any reason to beat a person like this! And you, why did you only steal glances at others’ books multiple times?”

Roban clearly remembered what he had answered to that young prince’s question.

Because those were the words that changed his life.

“Having been caught stealing glances at someone else’s book, I suppose I didn’t want to bend my pride. I couldn’t bring myself to say it was because I had no money… so I answered that I felt I couldn’t live if I couldn’t read. But after saying that, tears came to my eyes as I realized those were my true feelings. So right there on the spot, I pressed my forehead to the ground and burst into tears.”

The librarian smiled quietly at Nina, who was listening to his story in silence.

“Then he asked if I could live if I could work in a place full of letters, and I eagerly said yes. That’s how I came to work in the newly completed Imperial Library.”

Nina’s eyes trembled slightly.

“That young prince was none other than His Majesty Emperor Magnus.”

Even if he owed a debt to the Former Emperor, that couldn’t be a reason to show me favor.

He wouldn’t know that I was the Former Emperor’s daughter.

Moreover, I had taken the life of his son who was a healer.

“Is that why you lied to His Majesty?”

At Nina’s question, which had suddenly turned cold, he slowly shook his head.

“I told you that my son, who was a healer, died in the Battle of Grinaato six years ago.”

That was the biggest reason I couldn’t understand why he helped me.

“The fourteen-year-old princess came to me carrying a box containing my son’s remains.”

Nina closed her eyes.

So it really was the healer who had treated me.

Though it was during a war with swords and arrows raining down, Nina couldn’t leave behind the healer who had died because of her. So she burned that healer’s body all night, gathered only the bones, put them in a box, and delivered them to his family.

“I held a funeral with my son’s remains that the princess tearfully handed to me then. I know that about twenty healers were conscripted at that time, and my son was the only one whose bones, at least, came back.”

The librarian had been shocked by the sight of the fourteen-year-old young princess who had returned from participating in the war.

The princess looked far too young to go to battle, and her sunken blue eyes were unfocused.

She seemed to have been greatly shocked by what she experienced on the battlefield.

“He died while healing me… because of me.”

The young princess, who couldn’t bring herself to lift her head while handing over the box containing the remains, had shed thick tears.

The librarian had watched Nina Arsed from afar ever since.

She constantly went to battlefields and always led Arsed to victory, became a knight commander at seventeen, and finally achieved continental unification under Arsed’s name.

“It would be a lie to say I didn’t resent you. But at some point, I came to think that since my son died healing the princess, part of my son remained within the princess.”

Tears streamed down Nina’s face.

“You can’t imagine how happy I was when you first came to the library a few days ago. I wanted to share the story I had been keeping… but you left with a startled face, so I kept worrying about it.”

“I didn’t know… that was how you felt.”

“So please come to the library anytime you need to.”

Nina, who had wiped away her tears with both hands, finally looked at the librarian.

“But why did you write the reading records of the books I saw that way?”

A quiet sigh escaped from the old librarian.

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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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