The Abandoned Prince’s Ghost Bride - Chapter 107

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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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The Phantom Bride of the Forsaken Prince — Episode 107

“Ahem!”
Lia and Lucian, who had been lost in their own world after finally confirming their feelings for each other, snapped back to reality at the sudden sound of a voice.
Turning their heads slowly, they found Kaiser clearing his throat pointedly, his expression unmistakably suggestive.
Both Lucian and Lia flushed crimson at the realization that they’d just kissed in front of him.
“K-Kaiser….”
“Hmm. So the pairing is all finished now?”
“Pairing…. Kaiser, I’ve been meaning to say this for a while — must you use that word?”
“If not pairing, what else would you call it? Should I say courtship instead?”
“…Never mind. What do I expect from you.”
While Lia’s eyes had turned cold as frost, Lucian gently wrapped an arm around her, sending Kaiser a pointed look.
“You should’ve had the decency to excuse yourself.”
Kaiser’s expression shifted to one of bewilderment.
“What? By that logic, you two should’ve gone somewhere else to do your courting in the first place. Putting on quite the show right in front of me…!”
“I’m sorry. That was my fault.”
Lucian, having attempted a counterattack only to find himself outmaneuvered, raised the white flag. Watching Kaiser snort indignantly and Lucian look sheepish, Lia burst into laughter.
“Ha ha ha! What are you two doing?”
Though he’d heard Lia laugh many times before, today her laughter seemed particularly clear and bright — like a lark’s song.
Both men wore soft, tender smiles.
Kaiser approached the pair and gently stroked Lia’s hair.
“I knew this would happen. Didn’t I tell you? It was only a matter of time.”
“S-stop that! I did give it serious thought!”
“Still, from what I could see, you were always bound to fall. The only question was whether it would happen sooner or later.”
Lia’s pride stung at the thought that Kaiser — of all people, the man notorious for his complete lack of tact — had seen right through her all along.
As she trembled with indignation, Lucian gently removed Kaiser’s hand from her hair.
Kaiser blinked in surprise at the gesture.
“I’d appreciate it if you refrained from that kind of contact going forward.”
“…Pardon?”
“To be honest, I’ve never mentioned it before, but you’re far too free with your hands.”
“You little brat — are you seriously trying to tell me you’re jealous?”
At Kaiser’s incredulous tone, Lucian met his gaze steadily.
When he made no denial, Kaiser froze, and Lia’s surprise matched his own.
The moment stretched until Kaiser burst out laughing.
“Ha ha ha! So that’s why your eyes have been so sharp lately. You’re bothered by this too?”
Kaiser pulled Lia from Lucian’s embrace and gathered her into his own arms.
Watching Kaiser rest his chin on top of Lia’s head, Lucian’s eyebrows twitched before his brow furrowed deeply.
At the sight of Lucian’s jealous, blazing stare, Lia covered her mouth.
‘Don’t laugh. Don’t you dare laugh.’
A jealous Lucian, of all things.
Now that they shared feelings and were lovers, his jealous expression seemed endearingly sweet and utterly charming. It even stirred memories of a younger Lucian, his cheeks puffed out in a childish pout.
“Come on, that’s enough….”
“How about this? Or this?”
Delighted by the chance to tease Lucian, Kaiser shifted into various poses while holding Lia, and Lucian’s expression grew darker by the second.
By the time Lucian’s lips began to tremble and he looked ready to explode, Kaiser finally released her.
“You’re the reason I can’t stop — you keep reacting so dramatically.”
“Jokes have limits…. Wait. Are you saying that all this time you’ve been hanging around Lia was just to…?”
Smirk—
At the sight of Kaiser’s deliberately rising smile, Lucian looked horrified. As he pressed a hand to his forehead with a heavy sigh, Kaiser cackled with glee.
“Kaiser, be straight with me. All this time, have you been doing nothing but messing with me?”
“For a kid, you’ve got sharp instincts. How’d you figure that out?”
“So you knew The Lady was here and just watched without letting on?”
Golden eyes flashed, and Kaiser flinched visibly.
“What are you implying? It sounds like you’re saying Kaiser knew everything all along.”
“That appears to be the case.”
When Lucian nodded at Lia’s question, Kaiser broke into a cold sweat.
“I-I-I don’t know what you’re talking about! Why would I knowingly let a woman who poses a threat to Lia…?”
“Dio mentioned it once. He said you’d tried to arrange for Lia and The Lady to meet before.”
Kaiser’s eyes visibly avoided Lucian’s gaze. Lia could now piece together what had happened.
“Well, he wouldn’t miss something like that. His ears are absurdly sharp.”
“That’s not all. You once told me you could sense the presence of people in the Imperial Palace. There’s no way you wouldn’t have noticed The Lady approaching Lia.”
“Oh, I see….”
Both Lucian and Lia fixed Kaiser with the same narrowed, piercing stare. Under their silent pressure, he clamped his mouth shut. But he couldn’t resist opening it again.
“Fine! Yes! I knew everything, so what!”
Faced with their continued cold gaze, Kaiser stumbled back with a sound of distress.
“B-but I really did plan to step in if things got dangerous! And nothing bad happened anyway! So isn’t that fine?”
“The fact remains that Lia was put in danger because of your curiosity.”
“I’m disappointed, Kaiser. To leave me in harm’s way just for your entertainment.”
The disappointment in their gazes made Kaiser falter.
“B-but if I hadn’t done this, would Lia have ever looked into her own heart?”
Suddenly turned into the defendant herself, Lia blinked in confusion.
“Think about it! You kept asking what I thought of Lucian, and I arranged for you to meet a rival for his love — that’s what made you finally examine your own feelings, isn’t it?”
“W-well….”
“Case closed! I did this for both of you!”
His audacious reversal left her speechless. Yet his words weren’t entirely wrong, and she found herself unable to respond.
In the awkward silence that followed, Lucian quietly approached Kaiser.
“Is that the truth?”
“What is.”
“What you told Lia about me.”
“Hah, do you have any idea how much effort I’ve put into bringing you two together?”
Kaiser launched into an explanation of all the days he’d spent persuading Lia, and with each word, Lucian’s lips twitched with suppressed amusement.
“Well, I suppose…there was reason to it.”
“See? Only you understand my heart!”
“…What are you two doing.”
Lia felt utterly excluded as she watched them bond over her absent presence.
“Still, I was definitely in the wrong. If I’m more careful from now on, that should be enough, right?”
As if words could undo spilled water.
“Actually, that girl — The Lady or whatever — I saw her meeting secretly with one of the servants before.”
“What?”
“Is that true?”
At Lucian and Lia’s startled reaction, Kaiser scratched his cheek sheepishly.
“Yeah, it was pretty obvious she was up to something involving you.”
“Why didn’t you mention this sooner!”
“Well, there’s no point in hiding something when you already know about it. You just sat there with full knowledge?”
“Ugh! That’s why I’m telling you now! I only saw them together, not what scheme she was cooking up!”
Kaiser continued to share what he knew, but nothing connected directly to the current crisis.
“…Kaiser, do you know which servant was in contact with The Lady?”
“Yeah. I’d recognize them on sight.”
“Then we need to root out the traitor first, and after that, strengthen security. Kaiser, no more jokes now — you need to properly protect Lia. Understood?”
“Ugh, if I keep joking around I’ll work myself to death. No more of that.”
“Lucian, what exactly are you planning to do?”
At Lia’s question, Lucian’s eyes grew cold.
“They need to learn exactly who they’ve dared to touch. As I see it, there’s definitely someone pulling the strings behind this. And if The Lady had intended harm from the start, things wouldn’t have ended so cleanly.”
True — when he’d provoked her, she’d shown an odd light in her eyes.
He’d expected jealousy when she professed her love for him, but that gleam had been something far beyond mere jealousy.
It was madness verging on obsession.
‘If she truly were someone who couldn’t read the room, I wouldn’t have shown her mercy.’
Perhaps she’d been ordered to threaten Lia by someone else.
“But…are you really planning to break the engagement?”
Yet separate from all that, Lucian’s complicated situation weighed on her mind.
“I can’t possibly let it slide when someone touches Lia.”
“But you won’t be able to break the engagement easily either. Especially if the reason is because of me. Everyone will think you’ve lost your head over a woman and can’t distinguish public from private.”
“Well, that’s not entirely wrong.”
At his casual response, Lia’s face flushed red. Only after she told him to stop joking did Lucian chuckle softly.
“I’m aware this won’t be simple. But Lia, that woman is absolutely not the one. I have to break the engagement for my brother’s sake too. She knows exactly what condition he’s in and still speaks of love to me — she’s that kind of woman. A long engagement? That’s not my concern, it’s his. When you think about it, she’s the one who betrayed first.”
“…You know Leopold is ill?”
“Once I revealed my identity, I would’ve asked the Duke about him. I don’t know if she’s aware he’s in a coma, but she must at least know he’s in such a grave condition that I need to act as his substitute.”
The thought of Leopold soured her mood. How could he stand to do this to such a kind boy….
“…All right. I’ll trust your judgment on this. Maybe I don’t even have the right to stop you.”
“No right? Lia, your very existence gives me the right to be involved.”
As Lucian raised her hand to his lips, Lia felt heat bloom across her cheeks. His golden eyes, fixed on her with such sweetness, made her quickly turn her head away.
“And I’d prefer it if you didn’t tell anyone else that we’re together.”
“…Why is that.”
Lucian’s expression immediately hardened.
“Because I don’t want to complicate things any further. And if we make it public, the rumors about me being the Emperor’s Imperial Consort will become fact. I don’t want that.”
“….”
Even Lucian had no choice but to accept her words this time.
Yet having only just aligned their hearts, he couldn’t bear to keep from others that Lia was his….
“And Lucian, I don’t want to be the Emperor’s Imperial Consort. I want to be Lucian Odel’s woman. When you can cast aside all your burdens and stand openly as Lucian, that’s when I want to be by your side.”
Lucian felt as though a tailwind had caught him.
Simple yet elegant, Lia’s gentle smile now openly radiated a love that was impossible to hide.
Lucian gazed down at her small hand clasped in his and smiled.
“Understood. I’ll do as you say.”
Seeing Lucian yield without resistance, Lia’s face brightened. The two then embraced, savoring their newfound affection.
Kaiser alone remained behind, watching them both with eyes turned cold as ice.

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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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