My Illusion Is Survival - Chapter 50
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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 50
“Hic! Ugh!”
“I’m sorry, Camela.”
“Sob, waaah…!”
“Stop crying now, it’s okay.”
Even while comforting the young girl in my arms, I felt drained and powerless.
The act of stopping mid-escape to open the window and throw myself out had been quite a gamble for me too.
“Hic! Waaaah!”
‘I can’t believe that actually worked.’
In truth, I hadn’t acted completely recklessly.
Due to the twisted space, I had expected that jumping out the window would land us in another part of the manor rather than off the cliff.
It was still reckless either way, but thanks to that, we were able to survive.
‘Still, I couldn’t do that twice. It’s bad for the heart.’
“More importantly, Camela, I asked before but why were you there alone? It seemed like you were running away.”
“Th-that’s… at first I was with Chase.”
“With the Young Master?”
Camela, who had barely stopped crying, opened her mouth with a dejected expression.
“When the commotion first started at the manor, we hid just in case. We heard screaming from outside, so we thought hiding would be better than running away.”
“That was the right choice. It would have been more dangerous if you had gone outside.”
“But after a while, Chase suddenly became strange.”
“Strange how?”
After hesitating several times, Camela continued stammering.
“He said he couldn’t breathe properly and kept trying to take off his mask.”
“His mask?”
“His Highness said he must never take it off, but he kept saying he couldn’t breathe…”
“…So did he take off the mask?”
“No, fortunately he didn’t. But I thought I couldn’t just leave him like that, so I went outside alone to get help, but then I couldn’t find my way back.”
That made sense. The moment she went outside to seek help, the space twisted and separated her from Chase.
“Th-then I met other people…”
Seeing the fear in her eyes, I gently held her small head in my arms.
“You don’t have to say any more.”
She probably saw people who had been affected by the demonic energy there. The small sniffling sounds from my arms were just pitiful.
“There’s one last thing I want to ask. Can you answer me?”
“Sob, p-please ask. I’ll tell you everything I know.”
“The Duchess was looking for her daughter. Is there a princess in Egmund?”
Camela, who had been fidgeting in my arms, lifted her head like a small animal.
“Well… there is a princess.”
“There is?”
“Actually, I’m that princess.”
“…What?”
“I’m the Princess of Egmund.”
My thoughts stopped for a moment. No matter how hard I looked, she didn’t seem like one at all,
‘No, that’s not the issue. Wasn’t Camela supposed to be Chase’s first love?’
Fortunately, my confusion was quickly resolved.
“Of course, I was adopted.”
“Adopted?”
“The real Princess of Egmund died right after birth. The Duchess was very sad about it, and His Highness couldn’t bear to see her like that, so he adopted me.”
Thanks to this, I began to understand the Duchess’s desperate search for her daughter.
‘She was searching for her dead daughter.’
However, I still had questions about how a child could exist between the Duke and Duchess.
“Um.”
“Yes.”
“…What will happen to the Duchess now?”
“Ah…”
“…Will Chase end up the same way too?”
It was a question too difficult to answer.
But just then, the sound of footsteps began approaching from nearby.
Tap, tap, tap!
“Ah, Miss!”
“Shh, be quiet.”
I hurriedly covered Camela’s mouth and hid behind the sofa, when the closed door opened and someone entered.
Actually, saying the door opened wasn’t quite accurate. The door was torn away as if ripped off, and someone familiar burst inside.
It was the Duke.
“Your High-!”
“Shh!”
However, I had to cover Camela’s mouth once again.
“Just how long do you plan to continue this pointless game of hide and seek?”
The Duke was not alone.
The first thing I noticed was a voice like old silk rustling in the wind. Soft but powerless, a voice steeped in indifference as if disappointed with everything in the world.
‘That person is…’
I lifted my head to look in that direction.
“I merely asked you to hand over that useless thing, yet I don’t understand why you make things so troublesome.”
There I could see the Crown Prince of the Holy Empire, Ragnear Agnis.
Chase was held in the Duke’s arms.
‘So we all end up meeting like this.’
This confirmed it.
The damned god of this world was definitely trying to test me somehow.
*
“My target isn’t you, Duke. If you just hand over that thing in your arms, I’ll spare your life, won’t I?”
Crown Prince Ragnear, who appeared with leisurely steps, was smiling, but there was no joy in his beautiful smile.
“This is your only chance. Unless you plan to make me a despicable traitor who kills his only aunt, give up now.”
Boredom hung on his tongue disguised as elegance. It wasn’t the leisure of one who would rule the world, but the composure of someone who no longer expected anything, making him an even more fearsome existence.
However, the Duke was not one to yield to such threats. Despite her legs and entire body being soaked in blood, the Duke’s eyes were still alive.
“A bastard who killed even his own brother dares speak of filial piety.”
“Ah- that again. I merely followed the heavenly mandate given to me. Everyone’s so noisy with their chatter.”
-What does any of that matter.
Disgust finally appeared at the corner of lips drained of all color.
“Do you think you can become emperor by killing everyone?”
“You state the obvious.”
“Yet you came all this way because you’re afraid of losing your rice bowl?”
At this point, a new voice interrupted.
“That’s enough, Duke. How dare you be so rude to His Highness.”
The one guarding Ragnear’s side was none other than Bellode.
“The Temple’s wolf.”
“Duke.”
“In the time I haven’t seen you, you’ve become nothing more than a dog on a leash. How did you become so pathetic?”
“Duke…!”
However, the Duke’s mockery continued.
“You harbored feelings for one mad woman, and in the end, you’ve even cast aside your pride.”
“How dare you! Do not speak so carelessly about her!”
“However, I am just the same.”
Though his trembling voice was as wretched as sandpaper scraping, his blood-soaked white face remained noble as ever.
“I too, just as much as you. I wanted to protect my child. That was all.”
“Do you insist on protecting a criminal to the very end?”
“My child has committed no crime.”
“Despite harboring magic and breathing on this earth until now, if that’s not a crime, then what is?”
Ragnear’s finger, Bellode’s frost-like gaze, finally reached Chase in her arms.
The purple mark branded like a stigma on his deathly pale skin pierced my eyes painfully.
“Even the mask has exhausted its effectiveness.”
Indeed, now that purple light was consuming even the Duke. It was proof that magic was tainting the Duke as well.
It was the price for embracing a child who should not be touched with her whole body and fleeing to this place.
“You made a foolish choice to the very end.”
“If only you hadn’t made Brio cause the magic to go berserk! If only the Holy Maiden had stepped forward! Both Vanessa and this child could have been healed…!”
“I told you, didn’t I? Those who choose magic and accept it of their own will can never receive salvation from the Holy Maiden.”
The last words were Bellode’s.
“The Temple’s provision of a blessed mask was the final consideration for Egmund. Now give up, Duke.”
“Christian!”
“It’s not too late for you yet. Since you didn’t accept the magic but were merely contaminated, if it’s now, the Holy Maiden will purify you.”
However, the Duke seemed determined to fight until the end, finally staggering to her feet.
“Rather than live so wretchedly, I would rather die here.”
At last, silence descended upon the surroundings.
“…Hah. This is driving me crazy, really.”
Now there was only one choice left for me.
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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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