That Piece Of Trash Was Me - Chapter 285

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

Epilogue Chapter 3

* * *

[Your Highness, congratulations on your triumphant return. Though I cannot attend due to matters at the White Tower, I have prepared an interesting tale as a victory gift. There is a place called Elops, famous for its milk and cheese. It is also well known as the birthplace of ‘tulips.’

Ten thousand years ago, there lived a spirit in that place. The spirit was so beautiful that three men courted her.

One was a great wealthy man who gifted a golden purse, one was a great knight who gifted a fine sword, and one was a young king who gifted a crown.

But the spirit pitied all three men. Yes, it was pity, not love. So, not wanting to hurt the three men she pitied, she took her own life and became a star in the heavens.

However, in the end, the men too were wounded by heartbreak from the spirit’s death and took their own lives.

And flowers bloomed in that place, they say.

The golden purse became the flower’s roots, the sword became the flower’s stem, and finally the crown became the flower’s head.

When you think of how tulips look like crowns, isn’t it quite a plausible tale?

From afar, sent by your teacher Schulz Schmidt.]

“…I shouldn’t have received this.”

Ferdinand crumpled and burned the letter he had quickly read through.

It was a letter his teacher and the White Tower’s youngest Pneuma, Schulz Schmidt, had gone out of his way to send. He couldn’t understand how this could possibly be considered a victory gift.

Ferdinand thought it was a meaningless letter, but it left him feeling strangely unpleasant.

First, he didn’t know why Schulz Schmidt had chosen to talk about tulips of all things, and second was the content itself.

So she pitied the three suitors and left them behind?

It was beautifully packaged, but in the end, she didn’t like any of the three.

“If she was going to pity them, she should have taken all three.”

Ferdinand frowned for a moment, then finally let out a sigh.

That would be maddening in its own way.

He looked out the window.

Ferdinand had received the same number of medals as the Founding Emperor. The victory ceremony held in the Emperor’s name, all the empire’s citizens throwing flowers and praising him.

Throughout the streets where the victory ceremony was held, purple cloth symbolizing victory hung everywhere you looked. It was like entering a giant grape forest, and Ferdinand was unusually elated.

Empress Carmi who would greet him, Second Prince Dave, and the nobles centered around them were probably on the verge of their heads exploding, but Ferdinand didn’t care at all.

He had a girl he always wanted to see.

Even while endlessly cutting down barbarians, sometimes rolling in the dirt when his sword broke.

So even while repeatedly facing the crisis of death…

There was a girl he always thought of.

That’s why Ferdinand wasn’t greatly hurt by the cruel words he heard at the Grand Duke Frazier’s mansion.

“What exactly did I do wrong that I have to marry someone so cruel and suffering from excess syndrome?! Everyone’s busy whispering that I’m being sold off like a sacrifice to a cripple when they see me!”

“So, Sophia! Can’t you be quiet?!”

Sophia Frazier.

Ferdinand’s current fiancée, unilaterally decided by the Emperor.

“Is Mother just using me as a tool? Huh?! Is it because I’m not Mother’s real daughter? You don’t even know how many young lords and princes send me love letters at the academy!”

Ferdinand, who had been bound by imperial etiquette his entire life, always treated Sophia with courtesy despite their formal engagement. He often sent letters of greeting at appropriate times, but replies never came back.

She always showed her distaste when she saw him, and at the academy, there were said to be over twenty men spreading rumors with her.

Soon enough, she would request to break off the engagement for some reason.

Ferdinand’s role then would simply be to approve the broken engagement so as not to tarnish Sophia Frazier’s honor.

That was all.

So such words didn’t bother him.

He was only curious about what Tulia Frazier might be thinking upon hearing those words.

Things he wanted to ask, so many things he wanted to ask, but couldn’t ask more because of the rain.

Leaving behind the garden full of roses, lilacs, acacias, hydrangeas, peonies, and golden moon flowers.

“How grateful that I’m so disgusting and terrible.”

“…”

“Because I too came to request breaking off the engagement with the Young Lady.”

Ferdinand spoke words he pretended were impulsive but had actually been harboring for a very long time.

“I’ve always wanted to take Frazier’s true precious jewel as my fiancée.”

“…”

“Please, I’ll petition His Majesty the Emperor immediately upon returning to issue new sacred orders as quickly as possible.”

Speaking these words felt like his heart was breaking and mending several times over.

It was strangely painful, in other words.

* * *

The victory banquet was planned to be held very grandly.

Ferdinand glanced at Second Prince Dave who was forcing a smile and Empress Carmi who wore her usual benevolent smile, then greeted the Emperor.

The Emperor was rarely smiling genuinely.

Moreover, he lightly patted Ferdinand’s shoulder and even gave him brief but encouraging words.

Ferdinand actually felt no particular emotion. He was wearing a horam-colored (deep blue with grayish tints) dress uniform, and was only thinking about whether a mark might remain where the Emperor had patted.

The Crown Prince’s palace, returned to early, had become remarkably splendid unlike before.

There was no shabby bedroom, no desolate garden. Since palace servants were more sensitive to power than anyone, they were already acting like tongues in mouths.

Ferdinand plopped down on the bed.

“Your Highness the Crown Prince, shall I open the window?”

Unlike before, a very cautious voice was heard. Ferdinand roughly nodded and let out a sigh.

His body was hot. Rushing the procession to match the victory ceremony left no time to care for his body.

Ferdinand fell asleep early only after taking herbs from Mount Luromance, and at midnight that day.

“…”

He opened his eyes in fiery pain.

It was as agonizing as if he had swallowed poison. Why? What? Why was this happening? His entire body wouldn’t move as if broken, and sweat poured down like rain.

He moved almost crawling on the floor to rummage through his hidden medicine box. Ferdinand, who was about to chew the herbs inside, stopped short.

“Fake…”

Instantly, goosebumps rose all over his body. No one knew about this medicine box. So why were the medicines inside switched?

Was this another plot by Empress Carmi? Or had one of his limbs betrayed him?

Ferdinand couldn’t continue his thoughts. It was because of the terrible pain. It felt like every bone in his body was breaking into pieces.

He realized what he had consumed was poisonous herbs. Where on earth did they get something so similar to the herbs from Mount Luromance…

The boy clutched the bedpost and panted madly. The sweat flowing throughout his body was so agonizing he thought it might actually be blood.

Pain arose as if rolling naked over densely planted needles.

What exactly, who, me, how…

“Your Highness…”

It was then that a voice like melting honey was heard.

“…?”

Ferdinand barely managed to lift his head. In his red eyes, blurred by fever, a woman’s face was reflected.

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