The Abandoned Prince’s Ghost Bride - Chapter 10

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

The Forsaken Prince’s Ghost Bride — Episode 10

[Sigh, Lusian.]
“What is it?”
Without even glancing my way, he answered obediently, and I found it almost amusing.
[Surely you don’t think I’d go through all this trouble just to drive you away?]
Lusian’s shoulders flinched.
[If I truly disliked you, I would have frightened you off long ago and been done with it. Why would I bother preparing meals I can’t even eat myself, teaching you letters, and training you in Swordsmanship?]
“That’s…….”
[It’s all for your future.]
His lips, which had puffed out like a duck’s, retreated somewhat.
[Do you know how all the people who lived here died?]
At the mention of death, Lusian’s courage faltered, and he shook his head.
[They all died yearning for people, living lonely for years in this place.]
There were rare occasions when someone would visit, but I merely provided them with necessities — never anything like true exchange.
Most who came here lived lives scarcely different from banishment.
[Do you understand? A person cannot live alone.]
“……But Father, what about you?”
[Hmm? Me?]
“Yes. You’ve been here alone for more than three hundred years.”
His words struck at the very heart of it, and without meaning to, I fell silent.
“Those people suffered loneliness for years without meeting anyone, so you must have struggled terribly too.”
Lusian reached out his hand, fumbling near my face. Though the sensation was merely air stirring, I could have sworn I felt the warmth of his presence.
As Lusian said, I had lived bound to this place for three hundred years.
After so many years alone, I had forgotten what loneliness even meant.
That he could recognize the long solitude I’d endured… it was rather…….
[……Strange child.]
“Father?”
[It’s nothing.]
Even as Lusian protested that he hadn’t heard me clearly, I rose from my seat and ignored his pleas.
The truth was, I couldn’t show him my face — I had no idea what expression I was wearing.
[Ahem! In any case, physical training like today’s is absolutely necessary for your future.]
“But it’s so hard.”
[Then try it for a month, and if your body shows no change, we’ll stop. I’ll help you earn your bread another way. But for that month, no complaints — you do exactly as I say. How about it?]
“Well…….”
A month was a long time for a child, and he seemed torn.
They say it takes at least two weeks of consistency for a habit to take root. In a month, Lusian would build some muscle and grow accustomed to exercise.
“If I say I don’t like it after a month, I can stop, right?”
Good, he’d taken the bait.
[Of course. Promise me.]
Only after Lusian had repeatedly insisted he wouldn’t do it did he finally promise me.
Goodness, someone who hates exercise that much might not even bother after a month.

* * *

That evening, after finishing his lessons and brushing his teeth, Lusian settled into bed.
[I’ll read you a Fairy Tale Book before sleep. What would you like today?]
I floated the Fairy Tale Books I’d prepared into the air. Lusian’s eyes sparkled as he examined them one by one with care.
Lusian’s favorite time was when I read him Fairy Tale Books.
When he first began to perceive me, he suddenly asked if I could read him stories, and from that moment until now, reading him a Fairy Tale Book before bedtime had become tradition.
“The Ki… and Drag-on? And the Wit……”
Though he’d mastered all the letters, he hadn’t yet learned all the words, so he couldn’t read perfectly.
I looked at the Fairy Tale Book he was pointing to.
[You mean ‘The King, the Dragon, and the Witch’?]
“Yes, that’s it! Isn’t this about the first emperor?”
[That’s right. You already know this story?]
“Yes! It’s my favorite Fairy Tale Book!”
Lusian became all excited and leaped from the bed, pretending to swing a sword.
“The first emperor defeated the wicked witch alongside the dragon and founded the kingdom!”
[Hm? A wicked witch?]
“Yes! A wicked witch!”
But the story he’s describing seems entirely different from the version I know.
According to Lusian’s account, this is how it went:
A horde of evil swept across a vast continent, threatening the people.
They tormented innocent souls, plundered them, and stained the vibrant lands with darkness.
As many fell into despair, losing those they held dear, one figure appeared.
With eyes golden as the sun itself, he struck down the wicked ones and offered kindness to the people, cleansing the darkened lands.
At his side was his companion, the Red Dragon, who became the guardian of all people.
Thus the horde of evil dwindled, and at last they faced the leader of evil herself.
The one commanding the evil horde was a fearsome witch, and her followers had been brainwashed into committing their atrocities.
The witch possessed beauty beyond measure, eloquence unmatched, and power greater than any other.
But the hero, uniting with the Red Dragon, at last defeated the witch and sealed her away forever from this world.
And so peace came to the land, and the hero built a castle where he vanquished the witch, founding what is now the Odrian Empire.
……So he says.
[What on earth did you hear? The witch couldn’t possibly be the villain.]
“But the Fairy Tale Book says so, and everyone says the witch is wicked?”
What in the outer world could have caused such a distortion? The witch was never a villain — far from it…….
Rather than correct him directly, I thought it better to show him the proper Fairy Tale Book.
[Lusian, wherever you read that, everything you know is a lie.]
“That can’t be right!”
[Oh, it can’t? Do you know when this book was made?]
I pointed to the date of publication written in ‘The King, the Dragon, and the Witch’. There it read: “Kingdom Era, Year 1”.
[This book was published during the age when the empire was still a kingdom — the very beginning of the kingdom itself.]
Lusian’s eyes widened at the vastness of the timeline. Yet still, he didn’t seem willing to believe me.
[Here, let me read it to you.]
Before he could raise another objection, I quickly settled beside him and opened the Fairy Tale Book.

◆ ◆ ◆

In a winding Mountain Valley, a boy was born.
His name was Leon, and he was ordinary.
Raised with his parents’ love in an ordinary Village, he learned the Hunting Technique from his father, a hunter.
He thought that soon he, too, would become a hunter as skilled as his father.
But the peace did not last long, for a cruel Lord swept into the Village.
‘From now on, I will collect taxes each month! Anyone who cannot pay will be cast out of this Village!’
The Lord demanded from the people a sum equal to an entire month’s living expenses. Those who resisted or could not pay were beaten by the knights, and the women were dragged away to the Lord.
Leon’s father hunted diligently and earned money to survive, but it was not enough to gather what the Lord demanded each month.
Eventually, people who harbored resentment toward the Lord gathered together, seeking to defeat him. Among them were Leon’s father and mother.
They armed themselves and marched upon the Lord’s Castle. But they could not overcome the Lord and were captured instead.
Leon was forced to say farewell to his father and mother forever.
‘Father, Mother……! I swear I will avenge this wrong……!’
Leon left the Village, vowing vengeance. He took the Hunting Technique his father had taught him as the foundation and began to master Swordsmanship.
And as he wandered the world, he came to understand that there were many others just like the Lord.
‘Those who have gain more, while those who have nothing lose even that.’
Leon believed the world must change. He set out to find others who shared his conviction.
But though all sympathized with his words, none would follow him.
‘Why? Why won’t anyone stand with me!’
‘That’s because people have grown accustomed to the present state of things.’
While Leon cried out in solitude, a woman’s voice reached him.
She was a woman of surpassing beauty, like an angel.
‘……Who are you?’
‘I am Aria. They call me a witch.’
Aria took interest in Leon, thinking his ideals would make for an interesting transformation of the world.
Aria was the greatest witch among all witches, possessing the most formidable power. Having witnessed her strength, Leon proposed that she travel with him. Aria accepted gladly.
The two set out again to find companions.
As they wandered through villages and forests, they entered a Cave and became lost.
And there they discovered the Red Dragon, his body covered in wounds.
‘Let me help you.’
With the power of a great witch, Aria healed the Red Dragon’s wounds.
Leon asked the Red Dragon how he had come to be injured.
‘A cursed human tried to capture me. He thought eating my heart would grant him eternal life.’
The Red Dragon had been attacked by a human — specifically, by a nearby Lord.
The Red Dragon, who had harbored thoughts of revenge against mankind, was persuaded by Leon and Aria to seek vengeance only against that Lord.
As the Red Dragon joined their cause, others began to gather around Leon.
‘This world must change! Let us all join forces and transform this cursed world!’
At Leon’s words, all raised their voices in unison and stormed the Lord’s Castle.
With the power of the great witch and the Red Dragon, together with Leon’s brilliant strategy, they defeated their enemies with ease.
As they vanquished Lord after Lord, the domains fell into disorder.
Leon resolved to unite all the territories and become king, so as to calm the confused people.
‘Wherever you go, we will be by your side.’
‘As long as I exist, no one shall ever touch you.’
Thanks to the Red Dragon’s protection and the great witch’s oath, Leon was able to become king.
Leon declared a kingdom, centered on the Village where he had been born.
He became the first king, a benevolent ruler who embraced all people.

◆ ◆ ◆

[That is the true story of ‘The King, the Dragon, and the Witch’.]
“It’s very different from what I knew.”
Perhaps because I’d read with such engagement, Lusian’s eyes, which had begun skeptical, now shone bright with wonder.
[I suppose it’s because this is the Original Edition.]
“What does ‘Original Edition’ mean?”
[It means the book as it was first made. The Fairy Tale Book you knew must have been adapted to suit a child’s understanding.]
What I had just read was somewhat difficult for a child to grasp.
The tyrant Lord, the deaths of the people — these were expressed rather starkly, so perhaps they’d been softened into depictions of “an evil horde” or “darkness”.
[The distortion is far too severe, though.]
The witch, Aria, had been entirely on the emperor’s side. She never stood with the enemy, and she always remained at the emperor’s side as his steadfast right hand.
“But why does the version I read make the witch the enemy?”
[I’m not certain either. What was the story you knew?]
“It said the witch was the leader of the enemy forces, and the emperor and dragon defeated and sealed her away.”
That phrase certainly appears nowhere in the Fairy Tale Book I possessed.
I understand that as time passes, stories change subtly to suit people’s tastes, but why deliberately alter the original content in such a way?

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