I Was Hired by the Dark Prince for My Life's Worth - Chapter 59

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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 59. Chaos
Time seemed to slow.
“Ah…?”
A stupid sound escaped the Assailant’s mouth.
He too had realized too late.
A massive shadow falling from the ceiling.
The Iron Chain glowing red-hot.
Death raining down upon his head.
But it was already too late.
Yurian seized my wrist and yanked.
The world spun inside out in an instant.
There was no time to resist.
When my senses returned, I was already in his arms.
At the same moment.
Boom――!!
A sound so loud my ears rang deafened the air.
The floor shook violently.
Hot dust and shards of glass scattered like a storm in all directions.
“Eek…!”
A scream tore from my throat unbidden.
Then came a low voice from above my head.
“Steady.”
It was Yurian.
He shielded my body entirely, taking the Chandelier on his back.
A shield… no.
Like a vast wall.
My heart plummeted.
‘This can’t happen.’
I didn’t mind if I was hurt.
A few cuts and bruises would be nothing.
But.
‘He can’t be hurt….’
Was it because of the Contract?
Or was my own selfishness mixed in?
The warmth enveloping my entire body was too vivid.
The arms shielding my back, the breath tickling my hair.
I was supposed to be the one protecting him, yet here he was protecting me.
…My heart beat in an odd rhythm.
“Your Highness.”
“I’m fine.”
He patted my back as if to reassure me.
A tender touch. Almost unbelievably so.
The roar faded to a whisper.
The deafening noise subsided not long after.
The dust that had clouded my vision settled, and the glass shards stopped flying.
In their place came silence.
…….
The Assailant’s voice, which had been screaming moments ago, was nowhere to be heard.
Only quiet surrounded us.
Yurian carefully withdrew me from his embrace.
“Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine… but you, Your Highness?”
“I’m fine as well.”
Was he, really?
When I looked up at him with wavering eyes, he confessed the truth with a smile as if nothing were amiss.
“Though I was scratched a bit.”
“Scratched…?!”
“It’s nothing.”
He shrugged off his outer robe and shook it out vigorously as if it meant nothing at all.
Glass shards tumbled down.
The amount of blood was not insignificant.
I quickly examined his back.
And my eyes widened.
“You’re bleeding….”
He’d claimed it was just a scratch. Liar.
His white shirt had turned crimson.
Of course it had.
There was no way he could have escaped unharmed from those razor-sharp glass shards raining down on him.
He hadn’t dodged them.
He’d blocked them all — every last fragment — meant for me.
“A wound like this is necessary, wouldn’t you say, if one is not to be mistaken for a pious Saint?”
“That’s absurd….”
“Never mind that. Look over there.”
Crunch.
He wrapped the wound with his outer robe as though it were nothing.
Then he pointed toward the shattered Chandelier.
I bit my lip hard.
The Assailant was irrelevant.
What mattered was how badly Yurian was hurt.
But he didn’t give me a chance to say anything.
“Come now.”
His hand forced my shoulder around, turning me away.
As my gaze shifted, the ruined Chandelier emerged from the billow of smoke.
The once-brilliant golden ornaments were crumpled beyond recognition.
Beneath it lay the Assailant, motionless.
Yurian spoke evenly as he looked down at the man’s still form.
“It’s over.”
I looked up at his face, wearing that gentle and warm smile.
Emotion surged up inside me.
“You knew, didn’t you? That the Chandelier would fall.”
“I was merely fortunate. God’s providence, perhaps.”
His pale eyes bent faintly in the flickering firelight.
He neither confirmed nor denied it.
He simply brushed away the ash that had fallen onto my shoulder with the tips of his fingers.
“Then you should have dodged instead. You didn’t need to shield me….”
“If I had, he would not have come this way.”
“You didn’t even need to use the Chandelier. If you didn’t want to soil your own hands, I could have done it…!”
“How could I let your hands bear that blood?”
“…!”
I was at a loss for words.
I stared up at him, my mouth opening and closing soundlessly as I searched for something to say.
Why.
“When we made our Contract, I told you — if anyone displeased you, I would handle them.”
“And did I ask you to do so?”
“That’s…!”
“Vanillin.”
He smiled, as always, with that gentle and radiant face.
Then he slowly passed by my side and stood before the Assailant.
“This is nothing but an accident.”
He checked whether the Assailant was truly dead, then lifted the body onto his shoulder with ease.
“As I said, we were testing our luck. This man simply had no fortune — he was struck by the Chandelier and died.”
“….”
“That I was cut by the glass shards was also merely an unlucky accident.”
Step, step.
He approached me and smiled.
“So at times like these, you should simply say thank you.”
“…That is.”
I pressed my lips together firmly.
“Thank you. Truly.”
How could I not be grateful.
But my eyes kept drifting to his back.
That wound might have been mine instead.
My chest grew heavy.
Why was he so tender with me?
Was it only because I belonged to him?
‘How could I let blood stain your hands.’
Who spoke that way to a servant?
“We need to leave now. Any longer and this becomes truly dangerous.”
Unaware of my thoughts, he pulled me forward by the wrist.
My wrist burned where his lukewarm hand grasped it.
We walked toward the exit, leaving the crumbling Mansion behind us.
The flames roared fiercer, pillars collapsing in multiple places.
The moment we stumbled into the open air, cold night wind scraped across my face.
Crash!
With perfect timing, the Mansion collapsed behind us.
“Dramatic timing, isn’t it?”
Yurian laughed and tugged me forward.
“Oh!”
Outside was chaos.
Nobles who had barely escaped the flames were sprawled about, coughing.
Their faces were blackened with soot, and their silk garments—clearly tailored at the finest ateliers—were now caked with dust.
What was almost funny was that despite their wretched appearance, they all kept their faces covered and tried to distance themselves from the Mansion.
Some desperately called for servants; others shrieked at coachmen to bring the carriages at once.
Their actions varied, but their purpose was identical.
To conceal by any means that they had been here tonight.
The moment word spread that they had attended a Debauchery Party, it would taint their families’ honor beyond recovery.
And yet.
“The Saint of the Empire, His Highness Yurian Ozbalt, Third Prince—we greet you!”
If only the world bent to our desires.
With impeccable timing, the Imperial Guard rode up on horseback.
The nobles, who had been fidgeting as they waited for their carriages, went rigid.
Every eye among the gathered aristocrats snapped toward us.
“Your Highness the Saint….”
“Your Highness, save us!”
People began pressing forward.
I stepped back and watched Yurian quietly.
He walked toward us carrying the Assailant’s corpse across his shoulders.
Though his pure white robes were smeared with ash and soot, he remained beautiful.
He looked like a saint who had led others out of the flames alone.
Someone asked in a trembling voice.
“That man….”
“He was merely following the organizer’s orders, I’m told.”
Yurian slowly laid the Assailant down on the ground.
He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened his mouth softly, as if with regret.
“I tried to save him, but the Chandelier fell and….”
He shook his head slightly.
“His purpose was to kill everyone inside.”
Boom!
Another explosion erupted with perfect timing.
The Mansion crumbled completely with a deafening roar.
The lips of the watching nobles trembled.
It was fury.
“The Fourth Prince….”
“He’s just a puppet anyway. The real power behind him….”
“Hush—mention it and we’ll all be drawn in.”
Cautious glances exchanged.
Not one of them doubted Yurian.
Instead, they all gazed up at him in reverence.
Uncertain eyes turned toward him.
Their savior.
And then—
“Your Highness….”
“You’ll pretend you know nothing about the party, won’t you?”
“Please, if Father finds out, I’m as good as dead.”
The only person who could bury tonight’s truth.
‘Remarkable, as always.’
He hadn’t told a single lie.
He’d simply edited the truth and delivered it.
With just two words, he’d preserved his own honor while painting the Second Prince and Fourth Prince as villains.
‘Our Yurian truly is something else.’
I was just beginning to feel oddly pleased, my lips twitching upward, when it happened.
“Your Highness, are you hurt?”
A member of the Imperial Guard, dressed in a black uniform, approached Yurian and bowed respectfully.
“We were deeply concerned when you insisted on going alone.”
The knight at the front of the group bore a long scar running down one eye.
Red hair, gray eyes, broad frame.
…Familiar.
‘Wait…?’
I stared at her as though entranced.
My breath seemed to stop.
My heart pounded wildly, thundering against my ribs.
A face I couldn’t forget, no matter how hard I tried.
“Vanillin?”
Yurian’s voice sounded distant and muffled to me.
Without thinking, I hid behind him and gripped the hem of his robe tightly.
It’s her.
“The person who killed my brother….”

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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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