I Was Hired by the Black-Minded Prince for My Life's Ransom - Chapter 61

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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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Episode 61. Awakening
“I… what?”
I found myself gaping like a fool.
Take me to Langslot Mansion?
“You really mean I could go there?”
To the place where I might have been born?
At words I’d never dared imagine, my fingertips trembled faintly.
As Yurian had said, until now there had been nothing but conjecture.
Perhaps it was this way. Perhaps that way.
A litany of suspicions without a shred of certainty.
So his meaning was simple: he would help me reach the end of all these doubts.
I gripped the teacup tightly.
The lingering warmth embraced my palm.
To be honest, I hesitated.
‘Should I look for the truth?’
For fifteen years I’d longed to know the truth about my brother’s death, and it felt suddenly within reach.
Hope that I’d thought long dead began clawing its way through the cracks in my heart.
But then again, it might mean nothing at all.
I might nurture this fragile hope only to discover I had no connection to any of it.
Then everything would collapse back to the beginning.
The more I hoped, the greater the ruin would be.
A storm of conflicting emotions swept over me, leaving me speechless, when Yurian continued in his measured voice.
“Of course, I don’t mean you can go there at this very moment.”
I slowly raised my head.
He lifted the teacup lightly by its rim.
“The Langslot Family estate is currently sealed under Imperial Administration. To enter, one must have appropriate justification.”
“Then…”
“Since it falls outside my jurisdiction, I must obtain permission and follow proper procedures.”
I said nothing.
Just hearing it made my head ache with the sheer complexity of it all.
It was far too generous an offer for a mere maid.
…And yet.
“But if you truly wish to go, Vanillin, I will find a way.”
He did not test me.
He did not ask for anything in return.
Even though uncovering the truth of my brother’s death would bring him no benefit whatsoever.
His pale amber eyes regarded me without wavering.
…I found it difficult to breathe.
Because I knew I was beginning to expect something from him that I shouldn’t.
He glanced at my empty teacup, then without a word, poured fresh black tea for me.
He’d noticed that I’d finished drinking without realizing it.
……
At that moment, I couldn’t bear it any longer.
After a long silence, I asked carefully.
“…Your Highness.”
“Yes?”
“Why are you doing all of this?”
I truly didn’t understand anymore.
The warmth of the teacup beneath my fingertips felt as lukewarm as his body heat.
I forced my voice steady as I looked up at him.
“Is it because I belong to you?”
……
He fell silent for a moment.
A stillness flowed between us.
Yurian regarded me as if savoring my question.
…His gaze was so piercing that I barely managed to blink.
Then he tilted his head slightly.
“Could there be any other reason?”
It was the response of someone asked, “Why do you breathe?”
His expression held not a trace of hesitation, as if I’d posed the most obvious question in the world.
“I’ve decided to accept Vanillin as my person.”
“…….”
“So it’s only natural. There’s no reason not to help when I’m able to.”
Sincerity bled through every word.
My chest felt oddly numb.
Under normal circumstances, such words would have moved me—so why didn’t they?
I fiddled with the teacup in my hands.
‘I’m happy. I’m definitely happy….’
So why did I feel a little disappointed?
I couldn’t understand it myself.
I’d achieved my original goal.
To become Yurian’s person—someone he couldn’t discard, wholly his—and preserve my life.
Hadn’t I worked hard toward that very end?
So this should have been enough.
But why did my chest feel so hollow?
“Isn’t that so, Vanillin?”
At his calm voice settling near my ear, I looked up at him.
Isn’t what so? What was he talking about?
He continued as I sat there blinking.
“Worrying about me, taking on danger in my stead—you do those things because you think of yourself as my person, don’t you?”
“Ah….”
I couldn’t find words, and my lips trembled as I lowered my gaze.
Was that it?
Had I only worried about him because he was ‘my person’?
Because he was my contract partner, simply because he was my master?
‘…It doesn’t feel like that.’
Suddenly, the day we first met came back to me.
The terror of death I’d felt then, the hunger to survive.
The despair and panic, the anxiety and gasping breaths.
Back then, Yurian had been nothing more than ‘a frightening man’ to me.
Someone who would draw his sword without hesitation the moment he found reason to kill me.
Yet he had changed.
— Vanillin is my person, isn’t she?
A man who didn’t believe in people or love had willingly accepted me as his own.
…What had I been thinking back then?
‘I was definitely happy.’
So why couldn’t I feel that happiness now?
The more reasons I listed in my head, the stranger the feeling became.
When had my heart begun to sink at the sight of that man injured?
When had my eyes nearly filled with tears watching his back, scarred from taking glass shards meant for me?
— I will not disappear before Vanillin does. At least not while she lives.
His cold yet tender assurance had made my heart race.
A single phrase—’my person’—couldn’t explain all of it.
‘What do I do?’
I fidgeted with my fingers.
The warmth of the teacup in my palm felt good.
That lukewarm, tender sensation—it felt like Yurian.
‘What am I going to do?’
I was ruined.
I squeezed my eyes shut, then opened them.
Kindness fell on me like drizzle from above, and I thought myself too wise to open an umbrella.
When I came to my senses, I was drenched.
The black tea in the teacup trembled gently.
‘It seems I….’
That man.
Yurian….
“…….”
I pressed my lips firmly together.
‘I can’t.’
I shook my head firmly from side to side.
‘I can’t think about this anymore.’
The moment I do, he’ll see right through me.
He can read my thoughts, after all.
“Vanillin?”
“…Yes.”
I lifted my head, concealing the tremor at the corners of my mouth.
It wasn’t difficult to feign indifference.
‘Don’t think.’
Don’t wonder. Don’t deliberate.
Let your feelings drift away.
At least in front of this man.
I quickly changed the subject.
“I’m grateful for Your Highness’s kindness.”
It was fortunate that I had another topic to focus on.
“If I may be so bold… I’d like to visit the Langslot Mansion.”
I bowed my head, part of me making a request, part of me wanting to hide my expression.
It was true that I was confused by this newly discovered feeling, but my desire to visit the Langslot Mansion was equally genuine.
I needed to go there myself and see.
Whether I truly carried the blood of Langslot in my veins… and.
Why my brother had to die. How it came to pass.
The time had come to unravel the thread of a long-held dream.
“Understood.”
Yurian nodded lightly.
As though it posed no difficulty.
“It will take some time to obtain the necessary permission.”
“Does it fall under Your Highness’s jurisdiction…?”
“No.”
Click.
He set down his teacup and smiled beautifully.
“The Capital is currently divided into four districts, each administered by one of the imperial princes.”
“Ah, so then….”
“The Langslot Mansion falls under the jurisdiction of one of these princes as well.”
I blinked.
Who could it be?
Excluding Yurian, that leaves three.
None of them had made a particularly favorable impression, but I sincerely hoped it wouldn’t be the Second Prince.
He wouldn’t do anything of benefit to Yurian.
Yurian caught the look in my eyes and smiled faintly.
“Fortunately, it is not my second brother.”
“…That’s a relief.”
“He doesn’t harbor enough ambition to seize something so vast yet useless.”
That much was true.
I blinked.
The ducal estate grounds would certainly be enormous.
…And since it had been reduced to ruins by the Massacre, it would be utterly worthless.
“In the end, such places tend to fall to the most useless of all.”
The most useless person.
I looked at him.
Yurian’s eyes curved as he smiled radiantly.
“Someone like my eldest brother, for instance.”

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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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