I Was Hired by the Dark Prince for My Life's Worth - Chapter 8

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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 8. Paying the Price of Life
I’d expected him to head to Yulian’s office, but instead he walked straight into the Fifth Separate Palace.
“This is a restricted access area.”
His footsteps were assured, as if he’d walked this path many times before.
I hesitated, then followed after him.
Ugh… this is terrifying.
They’d said everyone died here, that a terrible curse had sealed the place shut.
The air felt cold and oppressive because of it.
When I’d rushed in earlier to find the pen, I’d been too frantic to notice, but now the clothes still hanging casually on their racks seemed far more sinister.
I trembled and edged closer to Yulian.
“Would it… would it be all right if I held your sleeve?”
“If your life isn’t dear to you, try it.”
His tone was cynical and sharp.
It seemed he’d decided to stop wearing a mask in front of me.
I exhaled in relief and grasped his sleeve.
“……?”
Yulian stopped and turned to look at me.
“What are you doing, Vanillin?”
His expression was one of clear exasperation.
Well… but.
I answered hesitantly.
“Your Highness can’t kill me, can you?”
“…….”
“So you were giving me permission, weren’t you?”
Hadn’t he said to grab it if my life wasn’t dear to me?
My life meant nothing when I was before him.
“…Sigh.”
Yulian sighed, looking as though he didn’t know where to begin explaining this.
“How did something like this even end up here?”
Yet he didn’t brush my hand away.
Instead, he pushed open the door to what appeared to be the most elegant room.
“Ugh…”
I shrank back.
A chill ran down my spine.
Yulian drew the curtains and lit the lamps with perfect composure.
I cast anxious glances around the room.
“Whose room is…”
“The First Prince’s chambers.”
Click.
Holy Magic flared to life, and the room brightened.
Only then did I begin to feel better.
“The First Prince, you say…”
“You do ask a lot of questions, Vanillin.”
Yulian dusted off the mahogany desk a few times before continuing.
“The sole survivor of the cursed palace.”
“Ah… there was a survivor?”
“Yes, unfortunately.”
Unfortunately…
I clamped my mouth shut.
Now I recalled what Dae had told me.
That four princes were engaged in a fierce Succession Dispute… he’d definitely said that.
“Of course, my brother’s condition remains severe. They say it’s improving, but…”
He smiled warmly and pulled out my chair.
“I hope he recovers once the Crown Prince is decided.”
In other words: stay out of the Succession Dispute.
‘His personality is truly awful.’
I shook my head and sat in the chair he’d offered.
Yulian smiled serenely and took his seat across from me.
I’d secretly kept the Holy Contract tucked away, thinking he’d want to discuss it, but he shook his head.
“Before that.”
A man leaning deep into his chair, tapping his foot idly.
“There’s something I’d like to confirm.”
Eyes devoid of warmth fixed on me with an expressionless stare.
“Why does Vanillin want to make a deal with me?”
An unexpected question.
I blinked.
“I… sorry?”
“Why haven’t you run away? Why are you still here?”
The man’s brow furrowed as though nothing about this made sense.
“There’s no obvious reason you need to cling to the Imperial Household.”
He narrowed his eyes and tapped a finger against the desk.
“When I couldn’t kill you, you could have simply fled. Why did you come crawling back, begging to make a deal?”
……
“That’s what troubles me.”
A chill ran through me.
I felt the temperature around me drop and swallowed hard.
This was a suspicious man.
I didn’t need words to sense it.
Until that doubt was resolved, he would never trust me.
“I was working as an assistant to the Back Alley fixer, bound by an unfair contract.”
“…?”
“I wanted to investigate my brother’s death.”
Yulian’s eyebrows rose at this sudden shift in topic.
But I continued steadily.
What I needed now was only honesty.
“I grew up in my brother’s care, but one day, violent people suddenly stormed our home.”
As I spoke, the memories surfaced, creeping back in.
Assassins who burst in without a word and swung their blades.
“I fled desperately, but my brother died. He hid me first.”
“A common enough story.”
“…I suppose it is.”
Common as it was, it had been a tragedy.
All the more so for a five-year-old child to endure.
“So? What’s your point?”
Yulian spoke coldly, crossing his legs.
His expression suggested he would kill me if this was pointless.
I lowered my head and murmured.
“There was no paradise in escape…”
……
“I was constantly anxious, never knowing when they might come for me again.”
Even as I took beatings from Dae the fixer, I hadn’t left that house—out of fear.
Fear that the moment I stepped outside, I’d be captured.
“So… I couldn’t run away again.”
Because then I’d spend my life trembling with the same dread.
‘There must be other methods of killing me that I’ve forgotten.’
Or perhaps,
‘By now, they’ve already found a way to end me.’
Living in constant terror like that—I was simply exhausted by it.
So I looked Yulian directly in the eye.
“I don’t want to repeat the same mistake.”
“So you’re choosing a direct confrontation over hiding, is that it?”
“Yes… that’s right.”
Golden eyes regarded me quietly.
After a moment of silence,
“I like that. It pleases me.”
Yulian’s lips curved into a long smile.
“Tell me what Vanillin can do for me.”
“…!”
Did I… pass?
I stood there slack-jawed.
“Really…? This time it’s actually real, right?”
“I hate the uselessly moral type, you see.”
Click.
The man drew an elegant-looking pen from his pen case.
“I liked that the reason was personal. Vanillin turned out to be more contemptible than I expected.”
“…That’s a compliment, isn’t it?”
It sounds like an insult, though.
While I fidgeted nervously,
Yulian began writing out the contract terms in fluid handwriting.
“The primary condition is simple. Vanillin cannot betray me. Understood?”
“My soul is already bound anyway….”
“It means you must function as entirely my person.”
Entirely Yulian’s person….
Shaking off the strange feeling, I nodded.
It was something I’d already resolved to accept.
“And I’ll be implementing Location Tracking.”
“Location… Tracking?”
Can you even do something like that…?
As I blinked blankly, Yulian spoke in an even tone.
“So if you’re thinking of running away, now would be a good time to leave.”
“You won’t let me go anyway….”
He smiled wordlessly and wrote down: “Oswald Yulian will know Vanillin’s location in real time.”
I can’t betray him. I can’t run away.
‘I’m really paying the price for this one.’
I’d barely freed myself from the contract with Dae when another one appears.
I’m beginning to think this might be my cursed fate.
And yet, this time….
It’s a little different.
I quietly raised my hand.
“Then could I add just one condition too?”
“Hmm. Have you thought of another method of murder you forgot to mention?”
“No…! It’s nothing like that.”
What a ghastly thing for him to say!
I shook my head in alarm.
Then, carefully, fidgeting with my fingers, I spoke.
“Could Your Highness… also become entirely on my side?”
It wasn’t something I blurted out on impulse.
It was just… how do I put it.
It felt like something I’d been wanting for a long time.
For someone to appear who I could trust completely, like a brother.
But.
“That’s an unreasonable request.”
Yulian cut me off as though it weren’t worth reconsidering.
He spoke without even looking at me.
“Contracts aren’t meant to contain such abstract terms in the first place.”
“…Then what about Your Highness?”
“I’m different.”
Tap.
He set down his pen and leaned back in his chair.
His gaze turned toward me, unhurried.
“I’m a prince. Vanillin is a commoner.”
“Ah….”
What garbage logic.
I pressed my lips firmly shut.
Otherwise harsh words would spill out.
‘What was I hoping for.’
I dropped my head.
Right, it was a ridiculous request.
For a mere commoner to ask a prince for such a thing—it might have been presumptuous beyond measure.
An unreasonable request to make.
He fell silent for a moment, then continued.
“But perhaps there is another way.”
Tap, tap.
His fingers drummed slowly against the desk.
“What if we did this instead?”
His warm, gentle eyes turned toward me.
“Instead of some uncertain promise―”
A direct, unwavering gaze.
“I will find out what happened to Vanillin’s brother.”
My mouth fell open in shock.

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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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