I Was Hired by the Dark Prince for My Life's Worth - Chapter 47

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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 47. Yurian’s Position
I jerked my hand away from the bookshelf as if I’d been burned.
Then I clamped both hands over my mouth.
I couldn’t believe it.
‘You came to rescue me…?’
[Then what am I doing in a place like this?]
What do I do?
My tightly pressed lips twisted out of shape of their own accord.
I thought he wouldn’t come.
That’s why I burned the rope myself, searched through the Ledger, and was even looking for an escape route.
Because he would never come.
But then.
[Vanillin wrote it down. She said that if I was captured, I should ask you to rescue me.]
My vision blurred.
It was strange.
I wasn’t afraid just a moment ago, so why was fear suddenly creeping in?
[Are you all right?]
Tears threatened to spill over.
I was so happy that doubt began to creep in.
‘Could I still be dreaming? Still bound up somewhere, and hearing voices because of the drug?’
What if all of this was just a phantom born from my own desperate hopes?
I rubbed my reddened eyes.
Yurian’s voice dropped heavily.
[…You were bound?]
‘I’ve already freed myself.’
[What do you mean about the drug?]
‘There was a medicinal scent mixed into the air. I lost consciousness because of it earlier.’
But everything’s fine now.
My heart trembled.
Even if this were a dream, it would be enough.
Because it felt like you were worried about me.
The Organizer’s words from a moment ago came back to me.
— You weren’t worth that much after all.
It hurt because I couldn’t deny it.
[To think you would dare do such a thing.]
Could I dare hope now that I’d become someone of value to Yurian?
[I’ll have to put them all to death.]
‘…Pardon?’
[Where are you now?]
The anger in his voice made my heart flutter—was it directed for my sake?
‘I’m not sure of the exact location… but I think it’s the Organizer’s room.’
[The Organizer.]
Yurian echoed the words in a cold tone.
Then he spoke with measured calm.
[A middle floor room, then.]
His certainty, unshaken by even a trace of doubt, left me staring blankly.
‘How did you know?’
[That’s just how he is. Too cowardly to take the highest level for himself, satisfied with the comfortable middle position.]
‘…You knew him?’
[He’s my younger brother, at least.]
‘Pardon?’
[I’ll head there now, so wait for me.]
‘No, wait—hold on. Your younger brother?’
[…….]
‘Your Highness? Your Highness?’
But Yurian answered no more.
He must have moved beyond the five-meter radius where I could read his thoughts.
I stood alone, blinking vacantly.
Younger brother? Did that mean he was the fourth prince? That man?
I’d suspected he was nobility, but I never imagined he was a prince.
I never imagined that someone who called the Second Prince his superior would be his brother….
And his manner of speaking was strange too.
“So that’s why you put it that way. Content to hold the middle position rather than reach the very top.”
It seemed the Fourth Prince had chosen to serve beneath the Second Prince instead of competing for the Imperial Throne.
But truly, none of that mattered anymore.
Yurian had come. For no reason but to save me.
Faced with a reality almost too miraculous to believe, I sank down hard onto my knees.
The Ledger I’d dropped moments before caught against my feet.
Only then did my senses begin to return.
‘Now that I think of it, I was choosing a reconciliation gift.’
I’d been searching for materials that would delight Yurian.
Strangely, motivation bubbled up all at once.
I turned my attention back to the bookshelf.
I wanted to give him both a gift of apology and a gift of gratitude.
I’d just tucked away the unremarkable Ledger and was searching for a new gift when I noticed it.
“Mm…?”
The lowest shelf of the bookcase, in a corner so deep that you couldn’t see it without bending down.
There was a small Lever there.
“Ah.”
My heart began to beat a little faster.
Having worked as the Organizer’s assistant, I was well acquainted with such devices.
The usual way nobility hid secret spaces.
‘Found it—the real gift.’
Without hesitation, I pulled the Lever.
* * *
Yurian was angry.
And that fact displeased him.
“…….”
Walking through the corridor, he clenched and unclenched his fist absently.
His knuckles had gone white with the force of his grip.
Why did it irritate him so deeply?
It had been an ordinary day, no different from any other.
Waking as he always did, with Vanillin chattering beside him as she always did.
― I was so, so frightened. He just suddenly came rushing at me….
If someone else had said it, he would have laughed lightly and feigned concern. But why not with her?
With Vanillin, he found he could not.
‘Because she’s my person, perhaps.’
My person.
Yurian turned the unfamiliar phrase over in his mind.
Neither parent nor sibling, nor anyone else.
He had never possessed anyone who was wholly his own.
Those around him only waited for chances to kill him, to drag him down. My allies? There were none.
But Vanillin was different.
That small, rabbit-like maid alone stood apart.
― Can Your Highness truly become my complete ally…?
― I… I worried so much….
― I cannot bear it if something befalls Your Highness… because I am on your side.
The small body that had fearlessly blocked his path stirred something in him.
What certainty moved her to bare her back so completely to him?
Did she truly believe beyond doubt that he could never drive a blade between her shoulders?
‘No.’
Yurian shook his head.
Even if he did, she would accept it.
Her eyes would widen in that foolish, innocent way, and she would utter some senseless sound like ‘huh…?’
Was this what it meant, then—to have a person of one’s own?
He had never had one before. He could not know.
Creak.
“I heard you called for me, brother.”
“You’ve come.”
“Have you been well of late?”
When Yurian smiled as though he knew nothing, Kitten’s expression twisted.
Perhaps he was thinking of the lands that had been taken from him.
“You’ve been well, then?”
“I’ve never been better than I am these days.”
Yurian sat naturally across the table from Kitten.
Kitten lifted his teacup as though nothing were amiss.
He fought desperately to conceal it, but couldn’t stop his lips from trembling slightly.
Yurian read every one of those silent signals and simply smiled.
‘How foolish.’
In any case, the next emperor would be him.
All his plans were flowing smoothly, and both Kitten and the emperor were nothing more than pieces on an enormous chessboard.
Moreover, it meant that everything Kitten possessed would soon become his.
Valenta was merely the beginning.
“Will you have some tea?”
“No, thank you. My palate is unusually sensitive today.”
“It has a lovely aroma. A pity.”
And so the Second Prince’s conversation began, seeming to end yet never quite ending, dragging on tediously.
The movements of nobles, recent border tensions, Valenta’s business plans…
All stories he already knew.
‘Nothing but garbage.’
It was neither particularly interesting nor worth hearing.
And the Second Prince himself showed no desire to be having this conversation.
Did he harbor some scheme?
Yurian tilted his head, thinking leisurely.
The teacup that kept refilling itself despite his not drinking from it contained toxic herbs mixed in among the leaves.
Since the dose wasn’t lethal, the intention was to buy time rather than to kill.
‘So he means to make me lose consciousness and search the room.’
He’d suspected Kitten would seek revenge over the Valenta affair.
As always, he’d be desperately hunting for weaknesses.
But today would be difficult for him.
Because Vanillin would be in the room.
‘Vanillin.’
His thoughts drifted to her once more.
Was she blaming herself by now?
— Are you very angry…?
That anxious face asking that question surfaced in his mind.
The expression on the verge of tears as well.
……
Again. Anger and unease rose without cause.
A strange and unpleasant sensation.
The image of her weeping was not pleasant.
‘…How irritating.’
All the more so because he couldn’t understand why.
Yurian closed his eyes slowly.
He knew the way to ease this feeling.
All he needed was to see Vanillin and confirm that she wasn’t crying.
Then he could escape this displeasure as though it had never existed.
…But.
“Come to think of it, I brought back a jewel I mined in Valenta as a gift.”
He didn’t want to admit that his emotions were being swayed by Vanillin’s actions.
So he pretended to know nothing, his eyes widening.
If he’d known that his small maidservant was being kidnapped at that very moment, he would never have done so.

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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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