The Abandoned Prince’s Ghost Bride - Chapter 133

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

The Forsaken Crown Prince’s Ghost Bride: Chapter 133

“Your brother made you such an offer?”
“……Yes, I wish it were a jest, but he spoke those words plainly to me.”
Lirlis recounted to Lucian everything Leopold had proposed to her days earlier.
The proposal was simply that they encourage each other’s loves.

‘I’ve fallen for Lia.’
‘……What?’
‘I know I’m mad. She’s not just anyone—she’s my brother’s woman. But seeing her every day, my gaze won’t help but drift to her, and I find myself thinking of no one but Lia all day long.’

Leopold confessed his attraction to Lia without reservation. In that moment, Lirlis felt a despair far greater than when Lucian had coldly rejected her.
It was so overwhelming that it left her unable to think at all.

‘I know this is wrong. But my heart won’t obey me. Surely you understand, Lirlis?’
‘…….’
‘Let’s support each other’s love. It may be a terribly misguided affection, but this time—I cannot bring myself to let go of this love.’

Lirlis had no words to counter him. She herself harbored feelings for Lucian, after all, and she had betrayed Leopold.
But now that she found herself in such a position, the pain was beyond description.
And those final words of his—”this time”—sounded to Lirlis like a death sentence.
‘It means he doesn’t love me anymore.’
She wondered if perhaps he had suffered during all those years of unrequited longing for her, and that was why he spoke so.
‘And I don’t understand why I’m in such agony.’
From the moment he confessed, Lirlis had been in torment—a pain that gnawed at her heart bit by bit, stealing all her will to live.
She couldn’t say for certain whether she feared not becoming empress, or whether his ceasing to love her was what truly frightened her.
“……After that, he proposed that we support each other’s loves.”
It meant Leopold would arrange things so that she would seduce Lia, then tempt Lucian when the two of them were alone in his chamber.
In fact, Leopold had indeed orchestrated such an opportunity.
But Lirlis found herself unable to go along with his scheme.
Now that Lucian understood the whole story, his fists clenched tight.
‘……Leon!’
The one before him now was Leon wearing Leopold’s face. That was why he approached Lia with that guileless expression, repeating the same depravities as before.
‘I don’t know how he managed to deceive Lia’s eyes all this time, but he won’t have his way anymore.’
The mimicry of Leopold that stirred his heart, those moments when he had trusted the man implicitly as his elder brother—
‘And reaching for Lia again.’
None of it could be forgiven.
But his opponent was the First Emperor, who had lived for three hundred years inhabiting his descendants’ bodies.
Lucian couldn’t allow rage to cloud his judgment, so he drew in the deepest breath and steadied his mind.
“Before all this—had you noticed moments when your brother seemed unlike himself?”
“……There were moments when something felt off. His tastes seemed slightly different, and I saw a look in his eyes a few times that Leopold wouldn’t normally make.”
Beyond that, even in his ordinary routine, there were instances when he seemed subtly unlike Leopold.
This meant Leon had inhabited Leopold’s body from the very beginning.
Overwhelmed by desolation, Lucian shut his eyes tightly, then slowly released his clenched fists.
“You should go now.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“The fact that you confessed to me means you never accepted his proposal from the start. So there’s no reason for you to remain here, is there?”
Lirlis realized he wasn’t simply casting her out.
“……What do you intend to do about Leopold?”
Lucian paused, choosing his words carefully.
“Restore everything to as it was.”
It was a loaded statement, but it didn’t sound like a threat to Leopold.
In the end, Lirlis left the chamber as Lucian bade. Outside, she met the eyes of Yordi and the other guards waiting.
Under their pointed stares, Lirlis feigned indifference and passed them by.
‘Ah, that reminds me.’
She hadn’t warned Lucian about these men.
She hadn’t told him the truth yesterday precisely because his guards were present. She feared they might report to Leopold.
And besides, there was something oppressive in their gaze that made her tongue freeze.
It was a look even she, who had lived as a Crown Prince’s intended, could barely endure.
Lirlis turned back, but then caught sight of the guards’ expressionless eyes fixed upon her, and hesitated.
For an instant, their gaze seemed identical to that strange, alien look Leopold’s eyes held.
Unable to bear it any longer, Lirlis fled the Imperial Palace like a hunted animal and climbed into her carriage.
Her heart thundered wildly. Pressing her chest, she gasped in pain—and then, in that moment, a truth crystallized.
“Ha, ha……Now?”
Why had her heart felt at ease when Leopold was with her? Why had she kept coming to the Imperial Palace to see him? Why had she tried to suppress her feelings for Lucian? Why……why had she felt such despair when he said he liked Lia?
“……The person I loved was Leopold all along.”
Her feelings for Lucian were simple. He wore Leopold’s face and acted as she had always wished someone would.
She had liked him because he didn’t behave like other pathetic men—but whenever Lucian disappointed her, she had sought out Leopold in him.
The image of Leopold, who loved her with such blind devotion that he would pluck the stars from the sky for her.
She had loved Leopold since childhood. But she had denied her own heart because she despised admitting she loved a man who was behaving exactly like those contemptible men she looked down upon.
“Why am I only realizing this now?”
Her love always came to light too late, and only when it slipped from her grasp did she understand its worth.
Tears spilled from Lirlis’s eyes, and soon the carriage was filled with the sound of her quiet weeping.

* * *

“Time’s up. Shall we head back?”
An hour’s stroll had come to an end, and the time to return had arrived.
Just as Leopold turned to go with Lia, looking reluctant, he suddenly stopped and glanced back at her beside him.
“You stay here. I’ll go alone.”
“It’s fine. Let’s go together.”
“It would be troublesome to have you come and go. Please wait here, and I shall arrange for Lucian to come to you.”
Leopold gestured dramatically and brought her hand to his lips in a smooth motion. Lia wiped her hand with a dissatisfied expression.
As Leopold smiled at Lia, he departed alone with his escort. Once out of sight of the Garden, his expression vanished.
Beyond the point where the Garden could be seen, Leopold’s smile faded entirely.
The controlled, tender atmosphere he’d cultivated while mimicking Lucian, the cheerful and warm bearing natural to Leopold—all of it dissolved, leaving only a hollow puppet devoid of emotion.
One of Lucian’s guards, noticing the shift, casually approached Leopold.
“Is there something troubling you, Your Highness?”
His golden eyes rolled to the side, appraising the guard without interest.
A smile tugged at his lips—and the guard’s body went rigid as stone.
He stood frozen, comprehension never reaching his expression.
As his stiffened frame tilted forward, Leopold sidestepped.
“I detest those who lack perception. Your dear brother never taught you that?”
The guard’s frozen eyes stared at nothing. Leopold offered him a contemptuous smile and moved on.
Arriving at his own chamber, Leopold found Yordi and another knight standing watch.
“So Lirlis is gone, then?”
“She seemed to leave in haste. Shall I have her brought back?”
“No, let her be. That woman isn’t important.”
As Leopold stood with hands clasped behind his back, Yordi opened the door.
In that brief instant as the door swung open, Leopold’s expressionless face bloomed into a bright smile, and he became the Leopold everyone knew.
“You’ve arrived, brother!”
He greeted Lucian in a playful voice. Lucian sat perched on the edge of his bed.
Under normal circumstances, Lucian would have smiled back with a casual ‘You’re here?’ But now he sat quietly, eyes gleaming, observing Leopold carefully.
“What’s wrong? Upset because I whisked your girlfriend away? You’re quite the jealous one. Men who are jealous aren’t popular with women, you know.”
Leopold spoke smoothly, but Lucian remained silent.
At that, Leopold chuckled and stepped closer to Lucian.
“Relax. People might think I’m trying to steal your woman.”
“……You didn’t just look like you were trying—you actually were.”
“What? Don’t you trust this brother of yours? I have Lirlis—what are you going on about?”
“Lirlis already told me everything. What you were planning, why you separated Lia and me.”
Leopold’s eyes closed with a smile, then opened as his mouth quirked upward.
“……Interesting. I didn’t think Lirlis would tell you all that.”
“You weren’t planning to hide it?”
“Would you believe me if I made excuses?”
His casual response left Lucian not just flabbergasted, but genuinely speechless.
“Since you know, I’ll be honest. Will you give Lia to me?”
“……Do you think Lia is an object?”
“Well, I’ll have her eventually anyway, but I thought I’d ask. It looks better if you yield willingly rather than if I take her by force, don’t you think?”
Leopold smiled with that characteristic warmth of his, and Lucian felt a surge of rage—he seized Leopold’s throat.
Even as Lucian squeezed, Leopold’s expression remained unchanged, regarding him with lazy indifference.
“Ah, so my dear brother covets his elder’s place?”
“Who’s your elder?”
“Now you’re denying my very existence?”
“I know you’re Leon.”
Leopold, who had been smiling continuously, finally faltered and looked at Lucian with a chill in his eyes.
“……How interesting. I thought your suspicions had ended after last time. Was I mistaken?”
“I dropped them. Cursed as I am for being deceived by you, I trusted you like a true brother……!”
Lucian’s lips trembled with barely restrained fury.
Truth be told, before Leon arrived, Lucian had tried to face him as rationally as possible and quietly navigate the situation.
But watching him brazenly mimic his brother and openly lust for Lia, Lucian found the rising rage impossible to suppress.
Lia’s warning had slipped from his mind entirely.
“What did you do to him!”
Mana surged through Lucian’s body, whipping a storm around him.
Leopold let out a mocking laugh and seized the arm at his throat.
“I devoured every inch of him, from head to toe. Was that answer enough?”
“You son of a bitch!”
Lucian’s eyes blazed as he began to draw on Magic—only for Leon to snap his fingers.
Lucian’s body froze completely.
No matter how he strained or gathered his Mana to resist, he couldn’t move a muscle.
“Come now, you mustn’t challenge me with such feeble strength. I might lose control and kill you.”
Leon, who had somehow repositioned himself behind Lucian, whispered against his ear.
Lucian’s golden eyes rolled to the side, glaring with murderous intent.
But fierce as his gaze was, he couldn’t move a single finger.
“I never imagined that trash meant as an offering to break Aria’s seal would actually receive her love.”
Leon had known all along that Lucian, twin descendant, lived—yet had allowed it, because Lucian seemed like the perfect special offering for Aria.
People occasionally offered specially chosen sacrifices the way one might enjoy a nutritious delicacy: Lavio, Dadan Grout, Henry Raffle, and others of considerable power.
Young Lucian, when sent to the Mansion, possessed no extraordinary talent, but his bloodline itself was special enough to serve as a worthy offering.
That was the value Leon had ascribed to Lucian. Not human, not descendant—but a special sacrifice.
“Yet you dare……! Accursed twin! Will you steal my love again?”
Lucian wanted to protest that Aria had never been his love—but his mouth wouldn’t open.
“Every time your hand touches hers, I want to sever that wrist. How far have you gone with Aria? Surely not a kiss? If you’ve kissed her, I’ll tear out that tongue.”
After all, this was a man who had murdered hundreds of innocent lives for Aria alone, who had inhabited his descendants’ bodies for three hundred years.
Lucian understood better than anyone that the madness evident now was no mere threat.
Yet even so, Lucian met his eyes defiantly, as if to say: try.

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