I Was Hired by the Dark Prince for My Life's Worth - 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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Episode 31. The Abandoned Mailbox Alliance
…What?
A cold night breeze swept past me.
I stared blankly at the servant.
I’m sorry, what did you just say?
“Brannon’s… real master?”
My thoughts stuttered.
I’d been dimly suspecting it all along.
The Baron being a fake, the secret warehouse, the evidence that came from the mailbox.
But I never truly believed it.
My pupils darted uncertainly in their sockets.
“…Truly?”
“Yes.”
Rein answered with a bitter smile.
It was a response that tasted of sorrow yet carried absolute conviction.
How could this be.
I covered my mouth with my fingertips.
I had helped him three years ago.
“So you’ve been pretending to be the Baron’s servant all this time?”
“…To reclaim my rightful place.”
Rein spoke in an even tone, laying bare his weighty past as though it were nothing.
“I had given up on everything, truly.”
…….
“Wandering from place to place in the Slave Market, sold off again and again… and whenever I escaped, I was caught and returned.”
He moved quietly toward me.
Now that I saw it, I couldn’t fathom how I’d missed the measured precision of his movements all this time.
“I thought it was all over. No one treated me as a person anymore.”
His dark eyes, tinged with an otherworldly blue, slowly turned toward me.
Rein’s voice dropped low.
“But you weren’t like that, Vanillin.”
“That’s….”
“You didn’t know my name or my station, yet… you freed me from my shackles first.”
He smiled faintly.
“It was the first time in my life. Someone saving me without asking for anything in return.”
…….
“Without you, I would still be living that way.”
Words failed me.
I’d only helped him out of pity, but had that simple act meant so much to him?
He dropped to one knee before me.
Beneath his downcast lashes, his eyes glistened and wavered.
“To me, Vanillin is….”
Was he… crying?
I was about to lower myself in response, restless and uncertain, when—
“Vanillin.”
I flinched.
Yurian had called me.
His voice was low and quiet.
When I turned, he stood there with his smile barely present.
“Come here.”
…Why had he suddenly turned so cold?
I rose hesitantly from my seat, watching his expression.
Yurian smoothly grasped my wrist and pulled me behind him.
Thud.
“Oh.”
My head, thrown off balance, bumped lightly against his back.
…Why did he look so displeased?
‘Why are you doing this, Your Highness?’
‘Has something gone wrong?’
‘Your Highness, Your Highness?’
I called out to him silently in my mind over and over, but he gave no answer.
I just rolled my eyes for no particular reason.
Lately, I can’t quite read Yurian’s moods anymore.
He remained behind me, smiling softly.
“I understand that her circumstances are pitiful, but do refrain from appealing to emotions in such a manner—particularly with someone so guileless.”
His tone was as gentle as always.
Yet everyone present could sense it.
He was drawing a line.
“Vanillin has always been susceptible to such stories.”
“Ah….”
Me? Really?
“Even the slightest hint of pity moves her to compassion, and she extends her affection far too easily—even toward dangerous people.”
He smiled gently.
“It would be better if you discussed the details with me instead.”
Wait… no.
What?
‘Your Highness?’
[Was I mistaken?]
‘No, that’s not quite it….’
What was that feeling?
He was being so kind, yet somehow it felt like he was saying, ‘Don’t you dare touch what’s mine.’ Why was that?
…It must have been my imagination.
Unsettled by the odd sensation, I kept my lips sealed.
Yurian 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 nodded, flinching slightly.
Yurian’s pale amber eyes moved leisurely, now settling on the young lady of the Brannon house.
“What I cannot fathom is you, Olivia.”
His voice was low and measured.
“Why would you betray your own father to help this man?”
“That’s….”
Olivia’s pupils trembled faintly.
The sound of waves crashed.
The murmur of the surf reached us once more.
After a brief silence, Olivia slowly opened her mouth.
“At first, I didn’t know either. Not until Father let it slip in a drunken moment.”
Her gaze turned toward the dark sea.
Black waves surged against the breakwater as if swallowing it whole.
“That day, I learned the truth—that everything I’ve been enjoying all this time originally belonged to him.”
I quietly held my breath.
Olivia fell silent, as though reliving that moment.
And then.
“I was happy.”
She laughed.
My eyes widened.
Her lips, which always wore only a faint smile, curled upward in a full, unguarded grin, opening her mouth into a wide cavern of light.
“Wearing suffocating dresses, laughing gracefully, hearing nothing but demands to seduce some nobleman. I was so sick of it all.”
Her chestnut hair danced in the moonlight, caught by the wind.
It was as though a mask that had always surrounded her shattered in that moment.
“My father killed the person I loved for all of that.”
……
“The man I loved was a pirate—poor and of low birth.”
Olivia laughed, a sound almost like a sob.
It was a smile so sorrowful it looked like weeping.
“So how could I not welcome this? The chance to cut myself free from this suffocating father has finally come.”
Rein muttered something under his breath, his face heavy with resignation.
“Olivia….”
“I’m fine, Rein. I truly am.”
Olivia turned her gaze back to the sea.
“I just want to drift across the ocean like he did.”
Whoooosh—
The sea breeze seemed to delight in her words, sweeping between us and moving on.
I didn’t need to hear more to understand.
She was speaking the truth.
But there was one thing that nagged at me.
I leaned out from behind Yurian, just far enough to peek.
“Then, what about the scars on his body…?”
“Scars?”
“On Rein’s body… there were marks like whip wounds.”
In an instant, Yurian’s hand came back over his shoulder.
Thump.
My forehead was pushed back, and I ducked behind his back again.
“Ow.”
“Be quiet.”
Why are you pushing me?
I rubbed my forehead with an aggrieved look.
Olivia laughed bitterly.
“That was… unavoidable. I needed it to look that way.”
“Needed it…?”
“It’s easier to seem like a noble lady with sadistic tastes.”
…What?
Olivia continued without hesitation.
“That way, even if the two of us disappear in secret, my father won’t suspect easily.”
“Ah….”
“Nobles love strange rumors anyway, so they’ll spread them even more.”
So that was it.
I blinked blankly.
Rein too simply shrugged his shoulders.
“I was a slave anyway. One more scar like that hardly mattered.”
I nodded quietly.
Yurian, who had been listening in silence until now, slowly opened his mouth.
“So.”
The atmosphere shifted in an instant.
What had been a prelude before was now a negotiation.
Yurian’s eyes narrowed.
“Why are you telling me this?”
“That’s because….”
Gulp.
Rein swallowed hard and stepped forward.
Then he looked directly at Yurian.
“Because Your Highness will soon become Emperor.”
Wait, hold on.
I covered my mouth.
This was a far more dangerous conversation.
All the more so because the Crown Prince Position was currently vacant.
Yet Rein, as if he understood such things, wiped away the sweat trickling down his cheek and continued.
“The harbor of Ruen is small, but it holds limitless potential. We can open the passage to Valenta Island to you as well.”
His voice lay low beneath the sound of the waves.
“If you help us.”
Rein’s eyes shone with resolve.
“Ruen will become your sea forever.”
Splash!
A dark blue wave struck hard against the wharf below.
For a moment, the air fell silent.
I glanced up at Yurian.
“Ruen will be mine forever.”
He smiled widely.
Beneath the moonlight, his golden lashes curved softly.
A smile as gentle as a saint’s.
Yet his eyes were unmistakably those of the Royal Family.
A pure cruelty that measured and delighted in the worth of what would fall into his hands.
“You seem pleased with that.”
He curved his lips in a leisurely smile.
“All I need is for the Baron’s crimes to be exposed to the world on the day of the festival, yes?”

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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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