I Was Hired by the Black-Minded Prince for My Life's Ransom - Chapter 31

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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 31. The Abandoned Mailbox Alliance
…What?
A cold night breeze swept past in a sudden gust.
I stared blankly at the servant.
I’m sorry—what did you just say?
“Brannon’s… real master?”
My thoughts stuttered to a halt.
I’d been sensing something vague about it all along.
The baron being a fake, the secret warehouse, the evidence that had come from the mailbox—it all pointed somewhere.
But I’d kept thinking it couldn’t possibly be.
My pupils darted back and forth, lost and searching.
“…Truly?”
“Yes.”
Rein answered with a bitter smile.
It was a reply that tasted of ash, yet held fast.
How could such a thing be?
I covered my mouth with my fingertips.
I had helped him three years ago.
“So you’ve been pretending to be a servant at the baron’s side all this time?”
“…To reclaim my place.”
Rein spoke in a calm, matter-of-fact voice, laying bare a past weighted with sorrow as though it were nothing at all.
“Honestly, I had given up on everything.”
……
“I drifted from place to place in the Slave Market, sold again and again… and whenever I ran, they caught me and brought me back.”
He took a measured step toward me.
Looking at him now, I couldn’t fathom how I’d missed it for so long—the precision of his movements, so orderly and controlled.
“I thought everything was over. No one treated me as human anymore.”
Dark eyes tinged with an odd blue gleam turned slowly toward me.
Rein’s voice dropped low.
“But you, Vanillin. You were different.”
“That’s…”
“Without knowing my name or my station… you freed me from my chains first.”
A faint smile crossed his face.
“It was the first time in my life. Someone saving me with nothing expected in return.”
……
“If not for you, I’d still be living that way.”
I had no words.
I’d only helped him out of pity, but for him it had been something so profound—how could I not have understood?
He knelt on one knee before me.
Beneath his downcast lashes, his eyes wavered with a shimmer of unshed tears.
“To me, Vanillin, you are…”
Was he… crying?
I was shifting forward in discomfort, ready to lower myself toward him, when—
“Vanillin.”
I flinched.
Yulian had called to me.
His tone was quiet and measured.
When I turned, I found him standing there, his usual faint smile notably absent.
“Come here.”
Why had he suddenly spoken in such a cold voice?
I rose cautiously from my place, watching for any sign.
Then Yulian smoothly grasped my wrist and pulled me behind him.
A sharp tug.
“Oof.”
My head, robbed of balance, bumped softly against his back.
…Why did he suddenly look so displeased?
‘Your Highness, what is it?’
‘Did something go wrong?’
‘Your Highness, Your Highness?’
I called to him urgently in my mind, but he gave no answer.
I just rolled my eyes pointlessly.
Lately I can’t seem to read Yulian’s moods anymore.
He kept me behind him still, his smile remaining gentle.
“I understand the circumstances are difficult, but perhaps we might stop appealing to emotion that way—targeting an innocent person.”
His tone was mild, as always.
Yet everyone in that place could feel it.
He was drawing a line.
“Vanillin is naturally weak to stories like that.”
“Ah….”
Me? Really?
“Even the smallest show of pity and she’s quick to care, and she gives her heart easily even to dangerous people.”
He smiled slightly.
“It would be better if detailed matters were discussed with me.”
Well… no.
What?
‘Your Highness?’
[Was I wrong?]
‘No, that’s not exactly it….’
…What is this?
He’s being so kind, yet why does it feel like he’s saying “don’t touch what’s mine”?
…Surely I’m just imagining things.
My mood grew strangely turbulent, so I fell quiet and only gnawed at my lips.
Yulian turned his gaze back to the servant as though nothing had happened.
“We’ll need proof that you are indeed Rein Brannon, but for now, let’s accept it as fact.”
Rein flinched and nodded.
His pale amber eyes moved slowly, this time turning toward the young noblewoman.
“What I cannot understand, Olivia, is you.”
His voice was low and measured.
“What is your reason for helping this man, even at the cost of betraying your own father?”
“That is….”
Olivia’s eyes trembled quietly.
A wave crashed.
The sound of the surf echoed once more.
After a moment of silence, Olivia slowly opened her mouth.
“At first, I didn’t know either. Not until my father let it slip one night when he was drunk.”
Her gaze turned toward the dark sea.
Black waves surged against the breakwater as if to swallow it whole.
“That day I learned the truth—that everything I’ve been enjoying all this time originally belonged to this man.”
I swallowed quietly.
Olivia fell silent, as if recalling that day.
And then.
“I was happy.”
She laughed.
My eyes widened.
Her lips, which usually bore only a faint smile, curved upward in a broad arc, opening into a radiant cave of warmth.
“Having to wear suffocating dresses, smile gracefully, listen to nothing but orders to seduce some nobleman. I was truly sick of it all.”
Beneath the moonlight, her chestnut hair scattered in the wind.
Somehow, the mask that had always encircled her seemed to shatter in that moment.
“My father killed the person I loved for that.”
……
“The person I loved was a poor pirate with neither money nor status.”
Olivia laughed softly.
It was a sad smile—the kind that looked like weeping.
“So how could I not be glad? An opportunity finally came to sever ties with that suffocating father.”
Rein murmured with a sigh etched across his face.
“Olivia….”
“I’m fine, Rein. Really.”
Olivia turned her face to the sea.
“I just want to drift across the waves now, like he did.”
Whoooosh—
The sea breeze seemed to delight in her words, sweeping between us with fresh approval.
I didn’t need to hear more to understand.
She was speaking the truth now.
There was just one thing that nagged at me….
I peeked out from behind Yulian, revealing only my face.
“But, um… what about the scars on his body…?”
“Scars?”
“On Rein’s body… there were marks that looked like whip wounds.”
Yulian’s hand came back in an instant.
Thump.
My forehead was pushed back, and I retreated behind his shoulders again.
“Ow.”
“Quiet.”
Why are you pushing me?
I rubbed my forehead with an aggrieved expression.
Olivia let out a bitter laugh.
“That was… unavoidable. It was necessary for appearances.”
“Necessary…?”
“It’s easier to look like a sadistic noblewoman. That way, suspicion comes more slowly.”
…What?
Olivia continued without the slightest hesitation.
“If we disappear together, Father won’t jump to conclusions so quickly.”
“I see….”
“Nobles love strange rumors anyway—they’ll only make them worse.”
So that was it….
I blinked dumbly.
Rein, for his part, shrugged casually.
“I was a slave anyway. One more scar wasn’t worth dwelling on.”
I nodded quietly.
Yulian, who had been listening silently until then, slowly opened his mouth.
“So.”
The atmosphere shifted in an instant.
If their earlier words were foundation, what came now was negotiation.
Yulian’s eyes widened slightly.
“Why are you telling me this?”
“That’s….”
Gulp.
Rein swallowed hard and took a step forward.
Then he looked directly at Yulian.
“Because you will soon become Emperor.”
Wait, hold on.
I pressed my lips together.
This was a far more dangerous conversation.
Especially since the Crown Prince Position was currently vacant.
Yet Rein, as if he understood such risks perfectly, continued speaking, wiping sweat from his cheek.
“The harbor at Ruern is small, but it holds infinite potential. We can open the passage to Valenta Island for you whenever you wish.”
His voice dropped low beneath the sound of the waves.
“If you help us.”
Rein’s eyes gleamed with resolve.
“Ruern will be your sea forever.”
Splash!
A dark wave struck hard against the wharf below.
The air fell silent for a moment.
I glanced up at Yulian.
“Ruern will be mine forever.”
He smiled widely.
Golden lashes curved gently beneath the moonlight.
A smile as gentle as a saint’s.
Yet his eyes—those were unmistakably of the Imperial Family.
A pure cruelty that weighed the value of what lay within his grasp and delighted in it.
“You seem pleased with that.”
He lifted the corner of his mouth in a leisurely smile.
“On the day of the festival, if you would expose the baron’s misdeeds to the world—that would suffice, wouldn’t it?”

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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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