Me, a Princess? My Lord! - Chapter 26

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 26

Bang! Crash!

At that moment, a massive explosion rang out as if it would blow away the restaurant. The floor shook and even the chandelier swayed violently, twisting on its chains.

“…!”

“What the hell is this all of a sudden…?”

Deshion jerked his head up and scanned the surroundings.

The vibration that grazed his skin penetrated to his bones, so at first he thought an explosion had occurred inside the building. However, the interior was still intact.

‘Then what is it?’

Then, an acrid burnt smell stung his nostrils.

‘Don’t tell me….’

An ominous premonition ran coldly down Deshion’s spine. He rushed down the stairs without a moment’s hesitation.

Bang—

The moment he kicked open the closed door and emerged, his pupils dilated greatly. His heart skipped a beat and his breath caught in his throat.

“Fire! Fire!”

“My God, there are still people in the carriage! Doctor, call a doctor!”

“The coachman’s side seems hopeless….”

The screams and cries of people who had rushed into the street brushed past his ears.

Devastation.

There was no more accurate word than that.

The large and sturdy carriage of the Count’s Mansion was torn in half like a brutally slashed apple and being consumed by flames.

What is this? Right now this is… what.

Deshion’s reason scattered like fragments of the broken carriage.

His body moved before his thoughts.

‘No. This can’t be. No.’

Splash—

Water that someone had poured briefly suppressed the flames, and through that gap, Deshion threw his body into the carriage wreckage.

In the rear section blown out by the explosion, between tangled planks and metal pieces, he saw a small body covered in soot.

“Eloise!”

He called out her name like a howl and embraced her. Hot debris scraped his arms, but he didn’t care.

“Bring a doctor! Quickly!”

At Deshion’s voice, people moved about frantically.

Twitch, twitch—

Fortunately, Eloise still had consciousness remaining.

“…Brother.”

“Don’t lose consciousness. The doctor will come soon. Just hold on a little. Okay?”

“Fire….”

“That’s right, there was a fire.”

“It’s so hot…. It hurts, it hurts….”

“…Eloise?”

The next moment, strength slowly drained from her body.

Deshion’s chest sank deeply, and a sensation like his heart was pouring to the floor washed over him.

He had an intuition. Now his life could never return to before this moment.

Everything around him was burning away in the flames.

* * *

Unable to continue speaking for a moment, Deshion cast his gaze to a distant place. As if the heat and acrid smell of that day remaining on his fingertips were reviving, his face contorted greatly.

“…Actually, I don’t have much memory of what happened after that. Only that the doctor came and began treating Eloise after moving her inside the restaurant.”

“….”

“You would know the story after that better than I do, Heidi. It was you, not me, who stayed by Eloise’s side these past few years.”

Heidi slowly nodded. Her eyes had reddened.

The accident of that day, heard through Deshion’s mouth, was shocking. She had heard that there was a fire in the carriage, but this was the first time hearing such detailed circumstances.

‘If this incident is the reason Deshion needs me….’

Heidi’s eyes gradually widened as she pondered Deshion’s story.

“Don’t tell me….”

Heidi muttered quietly. Her face had turned pale as she met Deshion’s eyes.

“Do you think the person who harmed Miss Eloise was Princess Anastasia?”

“Of course, what Anastasia actually tried to kill wasn’t Eloise but me. I was the one who should have been in that carriage originally. It was an attempt to silence me.”

Heidi, engulfed in great shock, gripped her skirt tightly with trembling hands.

“How could she do such a thing….”

Heidi asked in a trembling voice.

“Was there, was there definite evidence?”

“It wasn’t difficult to identify the culprit. It was the man who was in the coachman’s seat. He had killed the coachman who originally worked for the Count’s Mansion and stolen the carriage. He was preparing to detonate the bomb when I got in the carriage, but it seems he made a ridiculous mistake.”

Deshion continued, frowning.

“But identifying the culprit’s identity wasn’t easy. His face was severely damaged due to the fire.”

Heidi frowned and asked.

“Then?”

“I watched around his grave for almost half a year. To see if anyone would come looking for him.”

“Ah!”

“That’s how I found the man’s wife and secured evidence that she had received a large sum of money from Anastasia. It was the moment when suspicion that had only been circumstantial became certainty.”

Deshion’s eyes darkened. He kept his mouth tightly shut for a while as if suppressing his emotions.

After a long silence, Deshion’s lips slowly opened. He spoke as if chewing each word.

“That day I swore to God. That I would stake everything I had to get revenge for Eloise.”

“….”

“That I would take away everything Anastasia had and make her experience the same painful time that Eloise had endured.”

Veins bulged on the back of Deshion’s hands as he gripped the oar. At a glance, his face seemed expressionless as usual, but something was quietly boiling within his eyes.

Heidi felt that he was enduring while keeping his emotions, on the verge of explosion, tightly sealed away. As if even now those flames were still burning inside him, unextinguished.

Heidi’s chest gradually tightened. She felt pity and sympathy for the man before her.

The wealthiest man in the nation. A man with enough influence to resolve to shake the country, a man who lacked nothing.

In this moment, he seemed like a person as small and fragile as herself.

Probably every time Deshion saw Eloise, he would remember it. Her appearance screaming in the flames.

He must have felt guilt so suffocating he could barely breathe toward his younger sister who had taken on the terrible fate he should have experienced.

Heidi bit her lower lip with all her might as her heart ached.

“Heidi.”

At Deshion’s call, Heidi raised her head. Tension was circling around Deshion’s face as he looked at her.

“Now the lessons are over. You’ve kept everything you promised me. More faithfully than anyone.”

He paused to catch his breath and continued.

“So I should also keep the promise I made to you. What I said about giving you a choice.”

“…!”

Heidi’s eyes widened.

“If you say you want to leave, I will pay you compensation as promised. If you want, I’ll prepare a home for you in a place far from the capital and safe. Since you said you liked Aras, starting anew here wouldn’t be bad either.”

“….”

“Then you’ll be able to return to your life that I didn’t interfere with. I will never look for you again, and you will be safe.”

Deshion lowered his thick eyelashes as if catching his breath. After a moment of silence, he parted his trembling lips.

“But, Heidi. If….”

“….”

“If by any chance you would stay.”

Deshion slowly looked at her. A burning flame flickered in his eyes.

“Everything I have will become yours.”

He spoke as if chewing the words.

“Even my life.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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