Queen of Revenge - Chapter 32

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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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Chapter 32
The Demon’s pale white face had taken on a sickly blue tinge, as if painted with ash.
[It’s him! It’s him! Damn it, I haven’t seen that ghost in ages!]
The terrified Demon shrieked into the empty air, smacking his lips at Lucian while casting anxious glances toward the far edge of the Snowy Field.
[Ah, curse my rotten luck!]
The Demon stamped his feet frantically, then clawed at the air with both hands. He gathered the frigid air into a mass and rode atop it.
[Tell Marcel our contract is still valid. Next time, I’ll devour double what I couldn’t eat today, so prepare yourself!]
The Demon let out a horrific shriek and vanished from sight.
Silence returned to the endless Desert of Snow. The Guard Knights, who had been dazed moments before, finally began to stir. But Lucian remained frozen in place like stone.
“Sir Lexer. What should we… do?”
“What should we do?”
The Guard Knight struck by the dagger Lucian had thrown stepped forward, breathing heavily.
“We eliminate the traitor and return.”
As his former subordinates reformed their ranks, Lucian’s mind churned endlessly.
He thought and thought again. Where had everything gone wrong?
The body in his arms had grown bitterly cold in mere moments.
The King’s command was fulfilled. His honor was restored, the Princess who plotted rebellion had vanished, Elovis would remain strong as ever, and the Crown Princess would ascend to the throne safely.
Nothing was wrong. Everything had turned out right.
Yet his heart thundered as if it might burst.
‘This isn’t right.’
His instincts screamed. This isn’t right. Not like this…
What had the Princess done wrong?
Did it matter now? She was already dead anyway.
‘I should never have crossed that line from the beginning.’
I should never have stepped through the threshold of that small Tower.
Had I not become entangled with the Princess from the start, perhaps she would never have harbored dreams of rebellion.
Had I not granted her requests one by one out of small pity.
Had I not brought her that problematic dress, nor overlooked the mysterious girl who came as a Maidservant.
Had I prevented the Princess from attending the Foundation Day Festival Banquet.
Had I spent that time persuading her to devise a way to smuggle her out of the Royal Palace instead, she might not have died like this.
Had I known sooner that there was no way to turn back once a boundary had been crossed, would something have been different?
I couldn’t know.
My mind was simply blank. Even the chill of the blade aimed at my own neck felt unreal.
“It’s fortunate that the Crown Princess is such a wise person. Seeing how she predicted even this situation beforehand.”
A Guard Knight had approached from behind without my noticing.
I forced my lips to move, though they felt numb.
“Did the King give you different orders?”
“Should any hint of betrayal appear in Lucian Perein, we were to eliminate him along with the Princess.”
A bitter laugh escaped me. The anger that had been smoldering suddenly ignited.
“You don’t trust me, yet you made such a threat?”
“Release the Princess and drop your weapon. Simply surrender now, Vice Commander. It’s not too late yet. We can handle this on our end.”
A man was dead, yet they spoke of it not being too late.
Lucian refused to turn and face his subordinates. If he looked upon those babbling faces now, he couldn’t answer for what he might do.
“I will attend to the Princess. The rest of you return to the Capital. Whether you report what you’ve seen and heard is your choice.”
“I don’t understand why you’re going this far! Is this Princess more important to you than your own father and brother, Vice Commander?”
“….”
“Never mind. Step aside. I need to confirm that he’s stopped breathing.”
A sound of fracturing echoed from somewhere.
The world to which Lucian had belonged so naturally his entire life was crumbling.
Beneath the jagged cracks in his convictions, a stench rose up—the underside of that peaceful world woven from threads of justice and morality.
Another world, hellish and vile, caked thick with the dregs of rotten power and the filth of corrupted greed.
That demonic visage consumed Lucian’s reason. His blade, locked away so firmly, slipped free from its sheath.
No one witnessed the draw.
The pupils of the Guard Knight reaching for the Princess dilated violently. It happened in an instant—no one had time to stop it or defend against it.
A ribbon of blood traced a long arc through the air.
“Ha.”
Lucian let out a hollow laugh of disbelief. Blood droplets slid down his blade.
“Ha….”
If this was always how it would end, what was the point of all that anguish and torment?
Lexer’s body crumbled like rotting wood. Behind it, the Guard Knights stood frozen in shock.
As Lucian’s grip tightened on the sword’s hilt, they faltered and began backing away.
One of them moved his lips silently.
‘Retreat, retreat! Take cover nearby!’
The Guard Knights turned and fled.
“….”
He was alone. Or rather, he was not alone.
Lucian cast his sword onto the snowy field. Then he knelt again beside the Princess lying upon the snow.
Her pale cheek was slowly beginning to freeze.
What was he to do now?
He couldn’t leave her here, yet he couldn’t return to the Command Tower.
Then where exactly—
That was when it happened.
“I knew this would happen.”
A voice, terrifying in its suppression of barely contained fury, struck down upon his crown.
Silver hair as if gathered from the very chill of this place, and eyes of deep crimson. It was Commander Winterbark.
A girl with golden-brown hair appeared from nowhere and rushed forward, shoving Lucian backward. In that moment of carelessness, she tore Iolet from his grasp.
“—! —!!”
Bara, cradling the limp Princess, bared her teeth at him in a snarl.
Kairon Winterbark swept his eerie gaze across the chaos surrounding them.
“Something felt off. Your eyes didn’t seem right, even though it seemed like you knew this would happen. As if you had some reason to believe in it anyway.”
“…So the Princess knew an attack was coming?”
A hoarse voice leaked through his vocal cords.
Kairon Winterbark spoke with savage intensity.
“How would I know that? You’d be the one to know, you lapdog of the Royal Family.”
The jewel adorning the Princess’s neck cast a faint shimmer of light.
Kneeling on one knee before her, Kairon Winterbark unfastened the front of the Princess’s dress.
As blood-soaked fabric fell away, the pierced wound was laid bare—a sight too horrific to bear witness to.
Lucian gazed distantly at the carnage when a sudden dissonance struck him. The blood that had been gushing from the Princess’s heart had stopped flowing.
Iolet’s complexion remained pallid. Yet something was gradually transforming within her.
“…!”
The limp hand suddenly stirred. Her slender fingers trembled with the faintest movement.
Bara sobbed as she cradled the Princess in her arms.
In that moment, Kairon Winterbark retrieved the dagger that had pierced Iolet’s heart from the snowy field, grinding his teeth ferociously.
He lunged at Lucian with lightning speed.
“…!”
Lucian pulled back too late, unable to fully evade the blade. The sharpened edge grazed perilously close to his left eye.
“Kugh…!”
“You bastard.”
He seemed to be facing a beast rather than a man. Had his evasion been delayed by even a second, his skull would have been cleaved in two.
Kairon Winterbark snarled at his proximity.
“How dare you raise a blade against her. Hmm?”
Lucian knocked aside his dagger with his scabbard and hastily created distance between them.
The man’s blood-red eyes radiated killing intent that threatened to devour him—a hue no different from the Demon who had toyed with him moments before.
“—!”
Bara emitted a sound like an injured puppy.
The man who had been glaring at Lucian snapped his head toward her with desperate urgency.
From the figure resting in Bara’s embrace, the faintest breath escaped. Lucian watched without daring to blink.
Thump, thump.
His heart hammered against his ribs.
His mind insisted it was impossible. He had already confirmed her breathing had ceased. Blood had pooled around her in a wide circle.
And yet….
Bara pressed her ear close to Iolet’s nose. The girl’s tear-and-mucus-streaked face suddenly bloomed with radiance.
“—!! —!”
Kairon Winterbark closed his eyes for a long moment, then opened them. The pupils that had blazed with killing intent now gleamed with unmistakable relief.
“If the Princess hadn’t needed you, you’d have been dead long ago. Do you understand?”
Kairon Winterbark hurled the dagger toward Lucian.
He spoke with undisguised contempt.
“Congratulations on achieving your objective. Go report to your precious master. Tell him the bothersome sister is dead, so now he can rest easy with his feet up.”
“….”
“How fortunate to be an honorable knight.”
Still seething with unresolved fury, Kairon Winterbark spat out a curse before turning back toward the Princess.
He swept Iolet into his arms, lifting her away from Bara.
“Lead the way, little demon. Take me to where your master dwells.”
The snow began to swirl with renewed violence. The snowy field writhed with the desolate howl of the wind.
Lucian found himself truly alone at last.

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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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