The Abandoned Prince’s Ghost Bride - Chapter 111

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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 Ghost Bride of the Forsaken Prince — Chapter 111

When Lia reached Lucian’s office, she found James just coming out.
“James, is His Majesty inside?”
“Yes, he is.”
Just as Lia was about to knock with a broad smile, James gently caught her hand.
“……His Majesty’s mood isn’t particularly good at the moment.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes, please do look after His Majesty carefully, Lia.”
Seeing the concern for Lucian written plainly across James’s face, Lia smiled.
“I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you.”
Lia passed James and entered the office. Lucian, unaware of her arrival, sat with his chin resting on his hand, lost in thought.
The atmosphere was certainly different from usual.
Lia approached him cautiously. When he still didn’t notice her, she tapped the desk.
Tap-tap.
“Lia? When did you arrive?”
Seeing Lucian return to his normal demeanor, Lia stepped closer to his side.
“What were you thinking about so intently?”
“Ah…… I heard something I didn’t expect, I suppose.”
“What was it?”
Lucian hesitated, then told Lia about the conversation he’d had with Ruber.
“……I see.”
“At least it wasn’t that he sent me there for some other purpose.”
Lucian felt somewhat confused, now facing his father’s heart—something he had avoided and wished never to know.
“But what brings you here at this hour? Are all your tasks done?”
“No, I felt the information was insufficient, so I was planning to visit the Mansion.”
“The Mansion?”
“Yes, I thought we might find clearer answers there. Kaiser wants to go now—is that all right with you?”
Lucian chuckled softly and played with Lia’s hair.
“You don’t need to ask my permission each time. I want to be with you, not confine you. If there’s somewhere you want to go, then go whenever you please. Of course, you should tell me beforehand so I can prepare myself mentally.”
“Understood. Age is coming along too, but you…….”
“As you can see, I can’t seem to manage it. I have work piling up, and there are other things I need to look into.”
Indeed, documents were heaped high on Lucian’s desk.
Lia felt a pang of sympathy for Lucian, who had to work without proper rest despite his troubled mind.
Lia lowered her head and kissed him.
As if taken by surprise, Lucian’s eyes widened.
“Don’t overexert yourself.”
At the sight of her worried gaze, Lucian smiled broadly.
“With such a reward, I’d be willing to pull all-nighters for days.”
“That’s not what I meant by ‘don’t overexert yourself.'”
“Just one more time.”
Lia, her eyes narrowed to slits, trembled as she watched Lucian wrap his arms around her waist and pout with exaggerated sweetness.
Then, gathering her courage again, she kissed him lightly.
But the moment her lips touched his, Lucian wrapped his hand around her head and exhaled deeply into her mouth.
For a moment, the warmth flooding through her lips startled Lia, but soon her eyes fluttered closed and she savored the kiss.
After what felt like both a brief and endless moment, their lips parted.
“Aah…… I don’t want to stop.”
As the warm breath from moments before tickled the back of her ear, Lia’s toes curled.
“We can’t. I have to work now. And…… we can do this anytime.”
The sight of Lia, her face flushed, whispering at his ear, was intensely alluring. Unable to restrain himself, Lucian lunged forward again, but Lia struck his shoulder firmly.
“Enough. I’ll complete my tasks and come back, so you work hard too.”
Leaving a reluctant Lucian behind, Lia straightened her collar. As she was about to leave, something caught her eye.
“Lucian, is this me?”
A framed portrait of Lia sat on Lucian’s desk.
“Yes.”
As Lia tilted her head curiously, staring at the portrait, Lucian spoke.
“You probably don’t know, but before I left the Mansion, I carried your portrait with me.”
“……What?”
A portrait of Lia that Lucian had begged and pleaded for her to sit for when they were children. He had carried one with him every day. And he’d done the same even when he fled the Mansion in anger.
“We were separated against our will. Every single day, I looked at this portrait. Because I missed you, Lia.”
But whether because it was drawn on parchment in simple strokes or because it had been handled so much that dirt had accumulated on it, the parchment gradually deteriorated.
Thinking it wouldn’t do to leave it as it was, Lucian secretly hired a painter.
“As you know, I have no talent for painting.”
“It’s dreadful.”
Lia still hasn’t forgotten the portrait Lucian drew for her the first time.
‘He drew me almost like a ghost.’
After a moment of recalling the past, Lia looked at her portrait again.
“The painter is quite skilled. Is he a court painter?”
“Strictly speaking, an assistant painter. I specifically requested an assistant painter because I needed someone discreet.”
“Hmm, is that so? What’s his name?”
“What was it again? Dian Rayple? Diana Rayple?”
“……What?”
“I can’t quite remember the first name, but I’m certain the surname was Rayple. Now that I think of it, it’s a strangely familiar name.”
Lia’s pupils trembled faintly. The surname was far too familiar.
“Could it be that Lucian…….”
“Hey! When are you coming! Age has already arrived!”
Kaiser burst through the door, huffing impatiently. He’d been waiting for her for some time.
“You dumped all your work on me and now you’re here having fun with your romance? Let’s go!”
“Wait a moment……!”
The impatient Kaiser seized Lia’s hand. Before she could be forcibly teleported, Lia turned her head urgently.
“Lucian! Call that painter later! I need to confirm something! Do you hear m……!”
Pop!
Before Lia could finish, Kaiser teleported with Age and Lia.
Watching the three vanish in an instant, Lucian blinked.

* * *

“We’ve finally arrived.”
Age, whose eyes had been closed, lifted his head as he sensed the presence of magic nearby.
Shortly after, Kaiser and Lia appeared in midair.
“I! Was! Still! Talking! And! You! Had! To! Teleport!”
“Ow! Ow ow ow! Why are you hitting me!”
Age’s eyes narrowed involuntarily. Kaiser was being beaten by Lia.
“Good heavens. And that’s the next Lord candidate.”
The world’s gone to ruin.
“That’s enough. Have you forgotten why we’re here?”
Only after Age intervened did the two separate. Kaiser shot Lia a glare while breathing heavily, but no further quarrel erupted.
After taking a deep breath, Lia turned her head to look at the Mansion. After standing in silence for some time, she finally spoke.
“So this is what it was like.”
Though the time she’d spent in the Imperial Palace was negligible compared to how long she’d lived in the Mansion, it now felt strangely unfamiliar.
Even standing outside the fence, the chains and pain that had bound her were absent, and she could no longer move freely through the Mansion as she once had.
Creak-creak.
The hinges creaked from lack of maintenance. And the Mansion, empty for so long, had dust settling in its corners.
At the stale smell she had never encountered before, Lia keenly felt how different she was from her time as a ghost.
Age approached Lia’s side as she sank into thought.
“Kaiser told me the rough outline. There were people living in this Mansion, yes?”
“Yes, I plan to search for records of their lives. Since it’ll take time to uncover everything, let’s do our best.”
They began searching the Mansion in earnest.
They decided to gather anything related to the Mansion’s secrets, sacrifices, temples, or the Imperial Family, without exception, and examine it all together.
They assigned Age and Kaiser one room each, and gave Lia the remaining three rooms.
Since she had organized all of this and knew the location of most items, it was decided that she would check all three remaining rooms.
Her first destination was Dadan Grout’s study.
Even here, he hadn’t stopped his research, so there were research materials he had left behind.
And fortunately, his records were in a format similar to a diary.
“Next.”
Next was Francis’s room.
His weapons were stored in the Underground Armory, but the small items he used daily were organized in a small attic.
Strangely, of all the rooms in this vast Mansion, he had preferred the attic most.
The diary, organized previously, was placed on the desk, and she rummaged through his belongings wondering if there might be anything else.
“As expected, just the diary…… huh?”
Something fell from his clothes. A pendant necklace.
As Lia thought ‘Did he wear something like this?’, she spotted a groove and pried it open.
Click.
Inside was a woman’s portrait along with an inscription.
“To my beloved Francis.”
It appeared the woman in the portrait had lovingly given this to him.
The woman in the portrait was quite beautiful. And.
“……Golden Eyes.”
A mark of the Imperial bloodline. She possessed those distinctive Golden Eyes.
Lia closed the pendant again and, with more reverence than before, put Francis’s belongings in order.
“There really is nothing special besides this.”
Lia gathered Francis’s diary, which she had briefly glanced through before, and made her way to the last room—Henri Rayple’s.
“Why did Kaiser have to show up at that exact moment…….”
The painter’s surname Lucian mentioned was ‘Rayple’.
The same surname, the same profession—could this truly be a coincidence?
“Moreover, Henri Rayple was the last person to live here.”
Around fifty to sixty years ago. That meant, in other words, there might still be people who remember Henri Rayple.
She removed the dust-covered cloths and rummaged through his belongings.
In truth, he hadn’t left much behind. He hadn’t kept a diary, hadn’t left records—only paintings. Nothing but paintings.
Mostly landscapes as viewed from this place, and occasionally his own self-portraits or imaginary figures.
Among them, what stood out most was.
“……Surely this is it.”
A portrait darkened and smudged by handling. It was a portrait of a woman.
Though there was nothing else to salvage from his room, Lia felt a strong compulsion to take this, so she carried it downstairs to the Living Room.
As she was arranging the items she’d gathered in the first-floor Living Room,
“Why aren’t the two of them coming?”
Age and Kaiser hadn’t returned. They should have finished by now, having only one room each while she looked through three.
Besides, there weren’t any items placed in the Living Room that they supposedly gathered.
Lia rose from her seat and looked around for them. Soon she was able to spot them not far away.

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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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